Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Original article
Eisenmenger syndrome and long-term survival in patients with Down syndrome and congenital heart disease
  1. Marc-André Körten1,2,3,
  2. Paul C Helm1,2,3,
  3. Hashim Abdul-Khaliq2,4,
  4. Helmut Baumgartner1,2,3,5,
  5. Deniz Kececioglu1,3,6,
  6. Christian Schlensak2,3,7,
  7. Ulrike M M Bauer1,2,3,
  8. Gerhard-Paul Diller2,3,5,
  9. Competence Network for Congenital Heart Defects Investigators
  1. 1National Register for Congenital Heart Defects, Berlin, Germany
  2. 2Competence Network for Congenital Heart Defects, Berlin, Germany
  3. 3DZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research), Berlin, Germany
  4. 4Department of Paediatric Cardiology, Saarland University Medical Center, Homburg, Germany
  5. 5Division of Adult Congenital and Valvular Heart Disease, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, University Hospital Muenster, Muenster, Germany
  6. 6Heart and Diabetes Center North Rhine-Westphalia, Center for Congenital Heart Defects, Bad Oeynhausen, Germany
  7. 7German Heart Competence Centre, Tübingen, Germany
  1. Correspondence to Professor Gerhard-Paul Diller, Division of Adult Congenital and Valvular Heart Disease, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine University Hospital of Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 33, Münster 48149, Germany; gerhard.diller{at}ukmuenster.de

Abstract

Objective To characterise patients with trisomy 21 (Down syndrome, DS) based on the data of the German National Register for Congenital Heart Defects, to identify changes in the availability of surgical therapy over time and to analyse the impact of these changes on developing Eisenmenger syndrome (ES) as well as survival.

Methods Out of 1549 patients with DS with congenital heart disease in the National Register for Congenital Heart Defects, 894 patients (55% female, mean age 17.5 years) had a post-tricuspid shunt lesion (atrioventricular septal defect 69.5%, ventricular septal defect 27.7%, patent arterial duct 2.6%) and were included in the current study.

Results The likelihood of being treated interventionally or surgically before the age of 1 year increased significantly over time. In parallel, the likelihood of developing ES decreased over time (53% birth cohort during 1950s/1960s vs 0.5% birth cohort during 2000–2009, p<0.0001). Overall survival after 1, 10, 20 and 40 years was 96.8%, 94.1%, 92.6% and 75.5%, respectively. Patients with ES had a significantly worse survival compared with those without ES (HR 18.1; 95% CI 7.2 to 45.4; p<0.0001).

Conclusions The availability of surgical correction was associated with a decrease in the likelihood of developing ES. Patients with DS still have reduced survival prospects compared with the general population, but this effect is largely driven by patients developing ES who still have a very poor prognosis.

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Linked Articles