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Prevalence of congenital heart disease among Palestinian children born in the Gaza Strip

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2013

Mahmoud Zaqout ,
Emad Said Aslem ,
Forijat Sadeldin Oweida  and
Daniel De Wolf
Mahmoud Zaqout*
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Abd Al Aziz Al Rantisi Specialist Pediatric Hospital, Gaza, Palestine
Emad Said Aslem
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Abd Al Aziz Al Rantisi Specialist Pediatric Hospital, Gaza, Palestine
Forijat Sadeldin Oweida
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Abd Al Aziz Al Rantisi Specialist Pediatric Hospital, Gaza, Palestine
Daniel De Wolf
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium
*
Correspondence to: Dr M. A. Zaqout, Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Abd Al Aziz Al Rantisi Pediatric Specialist Hospital, Al Naser Street, Gaza, Palestine. Tel: 00972 5 99 486 707; Fax: 00972 8 2856371; E-mail: dr_mahmoud9@hotmail.com
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Abstract

Objective

This study was designed to estimate the birth prevalence of children with congenital heart disease born in the Gaza Strip during 2010 and to compare these with estimates from elsewhere.

Methods

We reviewed the medical records of all children born in 2010 who were diagnosed, treated, and/or followed up in the four paediatric cardiology clinics in the Gaza Strip. Data were also obtained from El Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem and from the Schneider Hospital, Wolfson Medical Center, and Tel HaShomer Hospital in Israel, where we had referred some of our patients for percutaneous or surgical treatment.

Results

A total of 598 children with congenital heart disease were detected among the 59,757 children born alive in the Gaza Strip during 2010, yielding a birth incidence of 10 per 1000 live births. The most frequently occurring conditions were ventricular septal defects (28%), ostium secundum atrial septal defects (17%), patent ductus arteriosus (8.5%), and pulmonary valve abnormalities (8%). In this study, 7% of the children died. The actuarial survival at 6 months and 1 year of age was 94% and 93%, respectively, and remained stable over 18 months of follow-up.

Conclusion

The birth incidence of congenital heart disease in the Gaza Strip in 2010 (10 per 1000) is higher than most estimates in Western Europe (8.2 per 1000 live births) and North America (6.9 per 1000 live births) but is similar to estimates from other parts of Asia (9.3 per 1000 live births).

Keywords

Congenital heart defectsprevalencetreatment
Type
Original Articles
Information
Cardiology in the Young , Volume 24 , Issue 5 , October 2014 , pp. 905 - 909
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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