Clinical InvestigationValvular and Congenital Heart DiseaseNational time trends in congenital heart defects, Denmark, 1977-2005
Section snippets
Data sources
Since April 1, 1968, the Danish Civil Registration System has registered demographic, residence, vital status, and kinship information on all persons residing in Denmark, aided by the unique personal identification number assigned to each Danish resident. The personal identification number permits accurate linkage of individual-level information from Denmark's nationwide population-based registers, including the National Patient Register (NPR), the Medical Birth Register, the Causes of Death
Results
Of 1,763,591 persons born in Denmark in the period 1977 to 2005, 18,207 had ≥1 CHDs, yielding an overall CHD prevalence of 103 per 10,000 live births (Table I). Isolated septal defects were the most prevalent defects, comprising nearly one third of all CHDs. Conotruncal defect prevalence was 11.5 per 10,000 live births. Atrioventricular septal defect had a prevalence of 4.46 per 10,000 live births, and the left and right heart obstructive defects had prevalences of 6.35 and 3.61 per 10,000 live
Discussion
We identified and categorized congenital CHDs in >18,000 persons born in Denmark during a 29-year period, for an overall prevalence of 103 per 10,000 live births. The prevalence of CHDs increased from 73 to 113 per 10,000 live births during the study period—1977 to 2005. Among singletons, the prevalence of severe CHDs increased overall by 25%, whereas VSD prevalence doubled and ASD prevalence tripled. Increasing numbers of CHDs diagnosed in infancy contributed most to the increases in
Disclosures
The authors are solely responsible for the design and conduct of this study, all study analyses, and the drafting and editing of the manuscript and its final contents.
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Lorenzo Botto for sharing his classification scheme with us, and Jan Hansen for providing the data from the Danish Cytogenetic Central Register.
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