The objective of this study was to determinate the incidence and diagnostics of congenital heart defects in Kaunas infant population in 1999-2005 and to compare the data obtained with the data of years 1995-1998.
Subject and methods: The study population comprised all newborns born in Kaunas city during 1999-2005. Congenital heart defects were registered based on clinical diagnosis after its verification using the data from consulting centers and pediatric outpatient departments. To assess the incidence of congenital heart malformations in newborn population, we conducted a validated newborn register based on maternal residential district. Modern epidemiological methods were used for data analysis.
Results: In 1999-2005, there were 24 069 live births in Kaunas: 2231 newborns were born with congenital anomalies, 198 had congenital heart malformations. The incidence of congenital heart defects was 8.2 per 1000 live newborns. The majority of congenital heart malformations were diagnosed in delivery units (93.94%). We have analyzed the relationship between birth weight and gestational age of newborns with congenital heart malformations. Newborns with low birth weight were at significantly higher risk of congenital heart malformation than newborns with normal birth weight (OR=3.52, 95% CI, 2.25-5.47). Our data also showed that newborns born before 32 weeks of gestation had a 5-fold increased risk of congenital heart malformation (OR=5.20; 95% CI, 2.50-10.84) and infants born before 37 weeks of gestation had a 4-fold increased risk (OR=4.08; 95% CI, 2.68-6.19) compared with newborns born after 37 weeks of gestation.
Conclusions: This study shows that incidence of congenital heart anomalies in Kaunas newborn population was 8.2 cases per 1000 live newborns in 1999-2005. It was determined that during 1999-2005, the number of above-mentioned anomalies diagnosed in delivery units increased by 23%.