Congenital heart diseases in brazil

diagnosis at birth x neonatal deaths - a paradox

Abstract

Studies point to an underreporting of birth defects with the finding that the number of babies dying from birth defects is disproportionately higher than those found at birth. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the real incidence of congenital heart defects in Brazil and in three federative units, representative of the South, Southeast and Northeast regions of the country. METHOD: The frequency of congenital heart defects at the time of birth, in the period 2001-2005, was compared with the frequency of deaths from the same conditions and in the same period of time. The sources of the study are the SIM (Mortality Information System) and SINASC (National Birth Information System) databases of the Ministry of Health. RESULTS: The results are presented in Tables 1 to 4. It is reported that, while 2003 babies had a diagnosis of congenital heart disease at birth, 19,100 babies died during the study period (2001 to 2005). Thus, prenatal or neonatal diagnosis in Brazil accounts for approximately 1:10 (one for 10 cases) of neonatal deaths due to cardiopathies. In Brazil, heart disease was identified in 0.13% at birth, but 1.25% of newborns died of congenital heart disease in the same period. In addition, the reality of the Brazilian states varied significantly. In RS this ratio reached 1: 4; In São Paulo 1: 7 and in Bahia 1:31. CONCLUSION: The study suggests that the true incidence of congenital defects in our concepts, particularly cardiac, is apparently greater than those in our statistics dealing with live births, drawing attention to the need to encourage prenatal diagnosis Of the birth defects or at least their early postnatal diagnosis.