RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Prevalence of congenital heart disease in black schoolchildren of Soweto, Johannesburg.
JF British Heart Journal
JO Heart
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Cardiovascular Society
SP 554
OP 558
DO 10.1136/hrt.41.5.554
VO 41
IS 5
A1 M J McLaren
A1 A S Lachman
A1 J B Barlow
YR 1979
UL http://heart.bmj.com/content/41/5/554.abstract
AB A survey conducted by cardiologists in Soweto, Johannesburg, provided an opportunity of assessing the frequency of congenital heart disease in black schoolchildren. Among 12,050 schoolchildren aged 2 to 18 years, 48 had a congenital heart defect, yielding a prevalence of 3.9 per 1000. Only in 2- to 6-year-old children did the prevalence exceed that of rheumatic heart disease. The distribution of the types of defects was largely similar to that reported in other surveys with a predominance (52%) of ventricular septal defects. Two unusual findings were the unexplained absence of persistent ductus arteriosus in these children, and the detection of 5 children with situs inversus (1 in 2410). In all but one child, the congenital heart defect was first discovered during the survey. Despite the limitations of a prevalence study, it can be concluded that congenital heart disease is at least as common in this South African black community as in Caucasians.