Prevalence of congenital heart disease according to the echocardiography findings in 8145 neonates, multicenter study in southern Iran

INTRODUCTION: Congenital heart disease (CHD), the lethal congenital anomaly in newborns, is multifactorial, with environmental and genetic factors contributing to its occurrence. Although some studies on the prevalence of CHD have been conducted throughout the country, this large‐scale study aims to provide information on the prevalence of various types of CHDs in newborns according to the echocardiography findings. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Over 3 years, 8145 neonates with suspected CHD who underwent echocardiography by a trained pediatric cardiologist were included in this multicenter, cross‐sectional observational study. CHD was categorized into two major groups; cyanotic and acyanotic heart disease. The SPSS version 22 software was used to analyze the data with a significance level set at 0.05. RESULTS: Of 8145 neonates who were referred to our centers with CHD symptoms, 6307 were indicated for echocardiography. The mean age of the studied population was 8.5 ± 9.3 days and the male‐to‐female ratio was 2.6, especially in the arterial septal defect (ASD), ventricular septal defect (VSD), and patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) groups. 77.2% of patients had acyanotic heart disease (100 in 1000 neonates) with ASD as the most common one and 9% were diagnosed with cyanotic heart disease (11 in 1000 neonates) with transposition of the great arteries as the most common form and the aortopulmonary window was the rarest form. CONCLUSION: This large prospective, multicenter screening study reported arterial septal defect (85%) and patents with ductus arteriosus (32%) as the most frequent type of CHD. Moreover, the prevalence of male patients was significantly higher. This information would be helpful for health policy makers, stakeholders, and general practitioners in regions where there are no trained pediatric cardiologist fellowships and limited access to echocardiography devices for better management of CHD.