Background: In contrast to the adult age group, epidemiologic studies on heart failure (HF) in the pediatric population are lacking. This prospective study aimed to analyze the epidemiology of HF during infancy and childhood.

Patients and Methods: This prospective study was conducted on all the consecutive patients up to 5 years of age admitted with the diagnosis of HF in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of our Pediatric hospital between January 2016 and January 2018.

Results: Out of the 2000 children admitted to the Pediatric Intensive care unit 192 patients (9.6%) had HF. The subjects’ age ranged from 1 month to5 years. 112 were males and 80 females with M:F ratio 1.4:1. Out of 192 patients, 116 (60.4%) patients were less than one year of age. The common causes of HF were Congenital Heart Diseases (CHD) (60.4%), and Cardiomyopathies (15.1%). Other less common causes were sepsis (9.3%), severe anemia (6.7%), pulmonary hypertension and myocarditis each comprising (3.1%). Of the cardiac causes ventricular septal defect was the commonest 39.6%.

Conclusion: Heart failure is important cause of admission in pediatric intensive care unit. Structural heart disease is leading cause of HF in the children aged up to 5 years. 

Keywords: Heart failure, Congenital heart diseases, Cardiomyopathies, Ventricular septal defect.

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Dr Amber B. Mir

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