Spectrum of cardiovascular diseases at a referral tertiary care hospital in Somalia, Mogadishu: an echocardiographic study

BACKGROUND: To investigate the frequencies and patterns of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), including rheumatic and congenital heart diseases, among patients with abnormal hearts assessed by echocardiographic examination. METHODS: This retrospective, descriptive registry reviewed abnormal echocardiographic findings of 1140 patients aged 0–100 years who were admitted to the cardiology outpatient clinic at a tertiary training institution in Mogadishu. RESULTS: Hypertensive heart disease (HHD) (n:454, 39.8%), valvular heart disease (VHD) (n:395, 34.6%), and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) (n:351, 30.8%) were the most frequent comorbidities. Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) were detected in 151 (13.2%) of the patients, with the most common ones including atrial septal defect (ASD) (n:37, 3.2%) and ventricular septal defect (VSD) (n:26, 2.3%). Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) was observed in 84 (7.4%) patients, among whom the most common age range was 16–30 years (40.5%), followed by 31–45 years (31%) and 0–15 years (15.5%). Mitral insufficiency (n:541, 47.5%) was detected as the most frequent VHD, followed by aortic insufficiency (n:437, 38.3%), and tricuspid insufficiency (n:264, 23.2%) and mitral valve stenosis (n:39, 3.4%) was the least common VHD. CONCLUSION: In the present study, we found that HHD was the most common comorbidity, followed by VHD, and HFrEF. Moreover, the most common VHD was mitral insufficiency and the most common CHD was ASD. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12872-021-02417-4.