Heart Defect Affects Infant Death Rate
A new study found that correcting congenital heart defects in infants improves their risk of survival compared to their counterparts that do not receive corrective action.
Researchers say the birth defect known as patent ductus arteriosus, or PDA, affects infants who are born very prematurely.
The study was published in the January 2009 issue of Pediatrics.
The defect happens when a large blood vessel near the heart, called the ductus arteriosus, fails to close at birth. The condition makes blood flow abnormal between the aorta and pulmonary artery, two important vessels near the heart.
Dr. Shahab Noori and researchers from the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City studied the impact of the failure to close the PDA in 301 infants who were born prematurely.
"Basically what we found was that preterm infants whose ductus arteriosus failed to close either spontaneously or with medication had an eight-fold increase in risk of dying during the initial hospital stay," Noori said.
Researchers found 41 infants with a persistently open ductus arteriosus had lower birth weight and were less mature than the 260 infants with a closed ductus arteriosus.
Clinicians said the death rate was 70 percent in infants with an open ductus arteriosus versus 11 percent in those with a closed ductus arteriosus.
"The increased odds of mortality was noted even when known risk factor for death such as degree of prematurity and infection were taken into account," said Noori in an interview with Reuters.
"Although our study does not establish the patent ductus arteriosus as the cause of increased mortality, it strongly raises this possibility," Noori concluded.
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