Prevalence of Congenital Heart Disease at Live Birth in Taiwan

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.

ASDII, Secundum atrial septal defect, CHD, Congenital heart disease, CoA, Coarctation of aorta, DORV, Double outlet of right ventricle, ECD, Endocardial cushion defect, HLHS, Hypoplastic left heart syndrome, ICD-9-CM, International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, NHI, National Health Insurance, PDA, Patent ductus arteriosus, PS, Pulmonary stenosis, TAPVR, Total anomalous pulmonary venous return, TCPC, Total cavopulmonary connection, TGA, Transposition of great arteries, TOF, Tetralogy of Fallot, VSD, Ventricular septal defect