THE RESULTS OF ECHOCARDIOGRAPHIC SCREENING OF CHILDREN IN THEIR FIRST MONTHS OF LIFE (Velsk, Arkhangelsk Region)
In recent years, there has been an increase in the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in infants (first year of life), congenital heart defects (CHD) being the leading ones. The share of CHD in infants among other birth defects reaches up to 30-40 %, but it is CHD that are one of the main causes of infant mortality. Clinical diagnosis of CHD in the first weeks of life can be difficult due to insufficient physical data. It is therefore not always possible to suspect the disease in a timely manner and refer the child to a cardiologist. Thus, echocardiography in the first month of life is an essential diagnostic method for early detection of CHD. However, echocardiography is still sometimes unavailable, especially in rural areas. This article presents the results of a survey of 892 children (404 girls and 488 boys) in the first months of their life, living in the town of Velsk, Arkhangelsk Region, by means of transthoracic echocardiography using the ultrasound system Mindray M5 (China). The examined children had neither been supervised by a cardiologist nor screened for cardiovascular disease earlier. Echocardiography detected CHD in 1.9 % of the children. Among the identified CHD, the most common are: atrial septal defect (23.5 %), patent ductus arteriosus (17.6 %), and ventricular septal defect (17.6 %), which is in conflict with the commonly known statistical data. The rest of CHD, such as pulmonary artery stenosis and coarctation of the aorta, occurred only in 11.8 % of cases. As a result, four children needed urgent hospitalization to a centre specializing in cardiac surgery to consider their surgical treatment and determine further tactics of conservative treatment and observation.