Clinical Study of Extra Cardiac Malformations Associated with Congenital Heart Disease

Objective:The main objectives of the present study are to find the burden of CHDs in the hospital's admission and also to find the prevalence of occurrence of clinically recognizable extracardiac malformations associated with CHDs. Materials and Methods:This was a cross-sectional observational study done in a tertiary pediatric referral hospital, between the time period September 2016 and September 2018.Patients were included in the study are those who admitted to the pediatric general ward, PICU and NICU, either with a diagnosis of CHD or in whom a diagnosis of CHD was made after admission.The patients were examined clinically in detail for associated ECM.When any malformation present, patients were grouped in to two, one belonging to a clinically recognizable genetic syndrome or as an isolated occurrence of ECM. Results:The hospital admission rate was found to be 17.6 per 1000 pediatric hospital admissions.31% of the patients with CHDs were found to have an associated significant ECM.Of this 58.1% of the ECM occurred as a part of a clinically recognizable syndrome and the rest were isolated anomalies.A high rate of hospital admission was found for CHDs in the pediatric setting, underscoring the need for improvement of pediatric cardiology infrastructure in the Indian scenario; which should help in providing better medical and surgical care for the patients with CHD. Conclusion:A significant proportion of patients with CHD had associated ECM, implicating a genetic background for the etiology of CHD.This also undermines the importance of recognizing these anomalies and associated syndromes for complete evaluation of the patient and adequate counseling of the parents.