Description

Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) is defined as structural malformation of the heart or great vessels that is present at birth. Whatever may be the time of diagnosis CHD is the single most common malformation whichconstituteabout30%of the total. Congenital heart defect may occur as an isolated form or in combination with others. Some of the defects are simple and some are complex. Major Congenital Heart Defects (MCHD) are those of the heart or great vessels which necessitate surgical on catheterintervention in first six months of life.Pediatriccardiology was started as a subspecialty in Bangladesh in 1998 and initially pediatricians and public were not aware about existence of such a harmful disease in our community. Later, all concerned were educated by continuous medical education.A study conducted in Combined Military Hospital, Dhaka showed an incidence of 25/1000 live births in our country. The Baltimore Washington infant study reported the rate as 4/1000 live births. Less incidence in western country is contributed by fetal screening of heart in early pregnancy and abortion of diseased fetus play thereafter. Maternal health and nutritional status are also better in developed countries. Many hospital-based studies are conducted in many regions of the world but study in South Asia is limited. In this study, regional experience was highlighted. This study has taken a cross section of patient for survey from a single day arrival in a tertiary care busy pediatric cardiac outpatientclinic of Bangladesh.

All the patient who reported as a referred case to a pediatric cardiologist of a tertiary care hospital on a busy day, 6 March 2017, was selected randomly. All the cases were seen by the paediatric cardiologist after a healthcare assistant measured the body weight and oxygen saturation of the patients. The cardiovascular system of every patient was examined thoroughly, and a provisional diagnosis was made. Chest x-ray and electrocardiogram (ECG) were advised in some of the cases and Echocardiography was advised for all cases for anatomical diagnosis of new cases or follow up of previous diseases or postintervention and post-surgery follow up. Patients were documented in a non-invasive laboratory in database. Adults with chest pain who reported to the paediatric cardiologist were excluded from enrollment. Data were analyzed in Microsoft Excel. Numerical data were expressed in frequency and categorical data as percentage. Comparative analysis was not required it is a single variant observationalstudy. Permission of ethical committee of the hospital was taken accordingly.