Adult congenital heart disease

Abstract 

Children call adults ‘grown-up’. Adults may call teenagers, but not mature men and women grown-up. As many people with repaired congenital heart disease (CHD) live a full life, the appropriate perspective is adult CHD superceding the term grown-up congenital heart disease (GUCH). Population-based data now show some adults with corrected cardiac defects revert to normal life expectancy. Maternal and fetal risk factors for pregnancy have now been defined in a prospective population-based study. The majority of adult women with repaired CHD have low maternal risk. While 95% of patients with tetralogy of Fallot now survive early surgery, late sudden death remains problematic. Risks factors are non-restrictive right ventricular physiology and QRS >180 ms but not ventricular premature beats or non-sustained ventricular tachycardia. Quality of life questionnaires given to patients with a functionally univentricular heart, even though they may have disabilities, indicate QoL scores similar to the normal population.

Keywords: adult congenital heart disease, long-term follow-up, pregency, tetralogy of Fallot, common arterial trunk, univentricular heart, quality of life

No full text is available. To read the body of this article, please view the PDF online.

• f1 Correspondence to: EAS. Tel.: +44 (0)20 7351 8541; Fax: +44 (0)20 7351 8544; E-mail: e.shinebourne@rbh.nthames.nhs.uk