Abstract
Background: Down syndrome (DS) is the commonest chromosomal abnormality with high incidence of congenital heart diseases (CHDs). The most prevalent two CHD among DS children.in most studies are complete atrioventricular canal (CAVC) (also called atrioventricular septal) defect and atrial septal defects (ASD). There is high incidence of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) among DS children with CHD compared to non Down syndrome (NDS) children. Aims: To measure the prevalence of CHD in general and the relative frequency of different types of CHD among DS children as well as the frequency, risk factors and characteristics of PAH in the studied sample. Methods: It is an echocardiography (echo) based case control study conducted over a 7 months period from the 15th of May to the 14th of December 2019. Information and obtained data were recorded using a special form. Statistical analysis carried out using Microsoft excel 2013 and the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) 18 computer programs. Results: The study involved 76 DS children (mean age in months 19.9±3.7 standard error of mean “SEM” ) and male /female gender ratio of 0.85/1 and 76 NDS children as control group with mean age 9.5± 2.03 SEM and gender ratio of 0.81/1. Congenital heart diseases were significantly higher among DS group 59% (P=0.003). The commonest CHD among DS children were CAVC and ASD .The PAH was significantly higher among DS children with high prevalence (30 %) (P=0.002) and odds ratio of 2.48 (95% CI 0.9-6.83). Complete atrioventricular canal defect, Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) and age of > 6 months were the main risk factors for the development of PAH among DS children. Conclusion: There is high prevalence of CHDs and their associated PAH among DS children especially in association with CAVC, PDA and age older than 6 months.
