A Study of Congenital Heart Disease in Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract

Material and Methods:

The observations on which this study is based were made on 230 patients with suspected congenit al heart disease, who attended the congenital heart clinic of this Centre. The series was closed at the 230th case, for by then 200 cases of proved congenital heart disease were collected. This policy was also adopted by Van der Horst et al. We must stress that the last fact only influenced our decision to perform cardiac catheterjsatjon but did not have any effect on overall patient population of this series and we are reasonably certain that this series did not include a greater number of cases amenable to surgical repair.

Results:
Figure I gives the relative incidence of diff erent congenital amomalies found in our series. Ventricular septal defect was the commonest lesion in this series. The five major congenital heart defects the ventricular septal defect, the atrial septal defect, the patent ductus arteriosus, the pulmonary stenosis and the tetralogv of Fallot comprised more than 80% of the entire series.

Discussion:
Three important series of congenital heart disease have been reported on Caucasian races. Wood reported his series of 900 cases. This was enlarged to 2000 cases by Somerville et al. Keith, Rowe and Vlad reported 6647 cases. Nadas’s series comprised of 3786 cases. Report of Van der Horst et al., is the only reliable one on population of Indo-Pakistan racial origin. Table VIII shows the relative Frequency of diff erent congenital heart defects as found in our series and those reported by other workers.