INTRODUCTION Congenital heart defects are the most common abnormalities in neonatal age. Congenital heart defects occur with a frequency of 3-12/1000 births. A special group is constituted by children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome because their treatment is extremely complex, requiring three-stage surgery and the involvement of various specialists. MATERIAL AND METHODS We analysed 100 ...

Congenital heart defects comprise the most common form of major birth defects, affecting 0.7% of all newborn infants. Jacobsen syndrome (11q-) is a rare chromosomal disorder caused by deletions in distal 11q. We have previously determined that a wide spectrum of the most common congenital heart defects occur in 11q-, including an unprecedented high frequency of hypoplastic left heart syndrome (...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the 1998 government policy for mandatory fortification of flour and pasta products with folate was followed by a reduction in the prevalence of severe congenital heart defects. DESIGN Time trend analysis. SETTING Province of Quebec, Canada. PARTICIPANTS Infants born in 1990-2005 identified with severe congenital heart defects (tetralogy of Fallot, endocard...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have reported conflicting results on the association between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and the risk of heart defects. We aimed to assess the association between SSRIs in pregnant women during the first trimester and the risk of congenital heart defects. METHODS AND RESULTS PubMed and EMBASE up to July 2014 were searched for population-based coho...

STUDY OBJECTIVE The aim was to make an epidemiological study of major congenital heart defects and to make comparisons between groups of heart defects regarding different epidemiological variables. DESIGN The cases with congenital heart defects were identified from two Swedish registries: the Registry of Congenital Malformations and the Child Cardiology Registry. A classification with nine gr...

The 22q11.2 microdeletion syndrome is one of the common microdeletion syndromes seen among children with Congenital Heart Defects. Population based studies have shown the prevalence of 22q11.2 microdeletion syndrome range from 1 in 4000 to 1 in 6000 live births.1,2 Over 80% of children with 22q11.2 microdeletion syndrome have Congenital Heart Defects.1,3,4 Diagnosis of 22q11.2 microdeletion syn...

Objective To evaluate whether the association between maternal periconceptional use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and increased risk of congenital heart defects in offspring is modified by maternal or infant genetic variants in folate, homocysteine, or transsulfuration pathways.Design Population based study. DNA from mothers, fathers, and infants was genotyped with an Illum...

BACKGROUND Documenting the prevalence and trends of congenital heart defects provides useful data for pediatric practice, health-care planning, and causal research. Yet, most population-based studies use data from the 1970s and 1980s. We sought to extend into more recent years the study of temporal and racial variations of heart defects occurrence in a well-defined population. METHODS We used...

The extrinsic factors responsible for the production of congenital heart malformations both clinically and experimentally are reviewed. The method to be followed in the investigation of extrinsic factors as teratogenic agents for the a heart and the great vessels both clinically and experimentally is studied. With Saxen and Rapola's work as a starting point, an hypothesis isproposed on thepatho...

OBJECTIVES Most researchers use the time domain and spectral analysis in the assessment of heart rate variability (HRV), while others use either the time or frequency domain measures. In this study, we investigated the presence of correlation between the time and frequency domain indices of HRV in normal healthy children and in patients with atrial septal defect (ASD). STUDY DESIGN A total of...