Frequency of various congenital heart diseases: analysis of 3790 consecutively catheterised patients.

A retrospective analysis of 3790 consecutive patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) who underwent haemodynamic and angiographic studies at Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology, Bangalore, from April 1981 to April 1994 has been done. The incidence of various CHD has been compared with that in other series from Asian and Western countries. Out of 6985 patients who underwent haemodynamic studies, 3790 had CHD (54.3%). Approximately 63 percent (2386) of these cases had shunt lesions like atrial septal defect (ASD), ventricular septal defect (VSD) and patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). Among them, 15 percent (367) had pulmonary arterial hypertension of various grades. The overall incidence of pulmonary arterial hypertension is higher than that reported in the Western literature. Corrective surgery was done in approximately 63 percent of cases. Ethnic differences in the incidence of CHD were found in this study when compared to the Eastern and Western literature. Congenital aortic stenosis and coarctation of aorta were less common compared to Western countries and Tetralogy of Fallot was less common compared to Eastern countries.