Verified By January 22, 2021
Congenital heart diseases (CHD) are the most prevalent and serious of all recognised structural birth defects. Their estimated prevalence is 0.9%, which means that one in every 110 newborns is born with the disease. They are considered multifactorial in origin and as a result it is difficult to pinpoint a single cause for the defect. As the embryonic heart develops between 14 – 60 days of pregnancy, any issues arising during this phase in the form of infection or drugs in a genetically susceptible individual, can result in a serious CHD.
The risk factors for critical congenital heart diseases can be classified into the following categories –
90% of all serious CHD seen in infants are multifactorial, which means they develop due to a combination of different factors (genetic and environmental, maternal and socio- demographic); only 2% of these are environmental and 8% are genetic alone.
To summarise, CHD has a major impact on human suffering and a high economic cost. Our main challenge is to prevent CHD through primary prevention, which would be possible thorough health awareness and genetic counselling.
August 26, 2024
August 26, 2024
April 18, 2024