[Special heart diagnosis in the 1st year of life. An analysis of 1,131 infants with congenital heart defects 1972-1983].

In the years 1972-1983, 1131 infants below one year of age have been investigated by means of heart catheterization and angiography, some only by echocardiography,--if necessary--operated and followed for at least one year. Ventricular septal defect was the most frequent congenital heart defect (16.6%), followed by transposition of the great arteries (12.1%), AV-canal (9.1%) and patent ductus arteriosus (8.1%). 58.3% of all patients had more than one lesion, 27.6% had critical lesions, which caused symptoms and had to be cured during the first month of life. 63.3% of patients with critical lesions were male. Clinical diagnosis could be improved considerably by means of echocardiography: in contrast to the years 1972-1974, where only in 49% of patients a clinical diagnosis was known before heart catheterization, this was the case in 73.1% in the years 1981-1983. Additional malformations of other organs were found in 28.6%, 19.9% had a birthweight below 2.5 kg. Concerning the various diagnoses, there were no regional or seasonal differences. The general rate of heart defects is said to be 0.8%, familiarity was 4.5%. Frequency of operations was 64.4%, mortality 37.4%, which could be improved by 10% in comparison of the beginning to the end of the time of observation.