Cardiovascular findings and management in Turner syndrome: insights from a French cohort.

OBJECTIVE

Congenital cardiovascular malformations and aortic dilatation are frequent in patients with Turner syndrome (TS). The objective of this study was to investigate the cardiovascular findings and management in a large cohort of patients, including children and adults.

DESIGN/METHODS: We recruited 336 patients with TS from a network of tertiary centers. We reviewed their files, checking for cardiovascular events, cardiac valve abnormalities, and aortic diameters indexed to body surface area (BSA) from magnetic resonance imaging (n=110) or echocardiography (n=300).

RESULTS

Informative cardiovascular data were available for only 233 patients. Vascular surgery was reported in 7.4% of the cohort. The first cause of surgery was aortic coarctation, detected in 6.9% at a median age of 9.5 (range: 0-60) years. Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) was detected in 21% at a median age of 20 years (25th-75th percentiles: 15-30). At least one aortic diameter exceeded 32 mm in 12% of the cohort. This was detected at a median age of 19 (7-30) years. When indexed to BSA, at least one aortic diameter exceeded 20 mm/m(2) in 39% of the cohort.

CONCLUSION

Our study shows that cardiovascular monitoring for TS patients is currently insufficient in France. BAV is present at birth, but often remains undiagnosed until later in life. Therefore, improved management in cardiovascular monitoring is required and a more systematic approach should be taken.