Prevalence of Ventricular Septal Defect and Associated Diseases Among Patients Under 18 Years in Shiraz During 2016-2017

Since ventricular septal defect (VSD) is the most common congenital heart disease, this study aimed to investigate its prevalence, characteristics, and associated diseases in a referral children’s heart clinic in south of Iran.  

In this cross-sectional study that was conducted based on the databases of children with heart diseases, patients under 18 years of age referring to Imam Reza clinic were examined. All patients with at least one record of VSD in echocardiography during 2016-2017 were included. Demographic and echocardiographic characteristics including size of VSD, shunt gradient, pulmonary hypertension (PH), aortic regurgitation, and associated cyanotic and acyanotic defects were analyzed.  

The prevalence of VSD found in 7458 echocardiography records was 12%, the median age of patients was 9.3, and the male/female ratio was 1.08. The perimembranous VSDs were determined to be the most common types of VSD. The most common associated complication with VSD was detected to be PH followed by aortic regurgitation. Sub-pulmonic showed the highest association with aortic failure. Atrial septal defect and tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) were the most common acyanotic and cyanotic heart defects, respectively. Only 0.5% of the patients had Eisenmenger syndrome.  

Fortunately, the prevalence of the complication of VSD was not high in south of Iran, and the number of Eisenmenger syndrome was low. The types of VSD and the number of its complications identified in study population were similar to those in other populations.