Prevalence of Congenital Heart Disease at Live Birth in Taiwan
Received 28 July 2009; received in revised form 1 October 2009; accepted 20 November 2009. published online 08 February 2010.
Objectives
To investigate the prevalence at live birth of congenital heart disease (CHD) in Taiwan.
Study design
Patients with CHD born from 2000 to 2006 were identified from National Health Insurance databases.
Results
CHD prevalence was 13.08 per 1000 live births: 12.05 (simple, 10.53; severe, 1.51) in male infants and 14.21 (simple, 12.90; severe, 1.32) in female infants. Ventricular septal defect (VSD; 4.0) was the most common defect, followed by secundum atrial septal defect (ASDII; 3.2), patent ductus arteriosus (PDA; 2.0), pulmonary stenosis (PS; 1.2), tetralogy of Fallot (TOF; 0.63), coarctation of aorta (CoA; 0.25), transposition of great arteries (TGA; 0.21), endocardial cushion defect (ECD; 0.20), double outlet of right ventricle (DORV; 0.15), total anomalous pulmonary venous return (TAPVR; 0.11), aortic stenosis (0.09), hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS; 0.062), Ebstein anomaly (0.047), and tricuspid atresia (0.046). Female predominance was observed in VSD, ASDII, PDA, and ECD; and male predominance was observed in TGA and TOF. Ratios of western prevalence to our Asian prevalence were high for HLHS (3.68-4.5), CoA (1.13-1.96), TGA (1.09-1.83), and tricuspid atresia (1.09-2.57), but low for PS (0.15-0.99), TOF (0.41-0.92), and possibly ASDII.
Conclusions
In this Asian population, the prevalence of CHD was at the high end of the reported range, with more PS and TOF, but fewer left-sided obstructions, TGA, and tricuspid atresia.
aDepartment of Pediatrics, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
bThe Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
cTaiwan Bureau of National Health Insurance, Taipei, Taiwan
Reprint requests: Dr Mei-Hwan Wu, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, National Taiwan University Hospital, No 7, Chung-Shan South Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan.
ABSTRACT