20/01/2010
Study highlights child heart defect
success story
A new study published in
The Lancet estimates 20-year survival rates for groups of people
with a range of different types of congenital abnormalities.
Congenital heart
disease - an abnormality of in the heart’s structure
present from birth - is one of the most common forms of birth
defect, affecting around one in 145 births in the
UK – or 4,600 babies every year (2). Many will
need specialist medical treatment or surgery to survive.
Professor Peter
Weissberg, Medical Director at the BHF, said: "This
research shows that efforts, many of them funded by the British
Heart Foundation, to improve diagnosis and treatment of children
with congenital heart disease have paid off.
"Fifty years ago most babies born
with a complex congenital heart condition would die before their
first birthday (3). Today, thanks to advances in treatment and
care, most babies with congenital heart disease will grow up to be
adults (4). But the story doesn't end there.
"Because children with congenital
heart disease can now be expected to live into adulthood, the NHS
must now follow the BHF's lead in ensuring that specialist services
in grown up congenital heart disease are adequately resourced."
Read
more about BHF-funded research successes into Congenital Heart
Disease
For
more information visit our section on Congenital Heart
Disease
Press enquiries
For more on this release please
call the BHF press office on 0207 554
0164 or 07764 290 381 (out of hours) or
email newsdesk@bhf.org.uk
(1) Statement issued in response to
‘20-year survival of children born with congenital anomalies: a
population-based study’ by Peter W G Tennant, Institute of Health
and Society, Newcastle University. Published online by The Lancet
January 20, 2010 DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61922-X
(2) BHF Congenital Heart Disease
Statistics (2001-2003), www.heartstats.org, Table 1.1
(3) BHF Congenital Heart Disease
Statistics (2001-2003), www.heartstats.org, Table 1.3
(4) Nieminen HP et al. Circulation.
2001 104:570-575 and personal communication with Professor John
Deanfield, Chair of the European Society of Cardiology’s Task Force
on the Management of Grown Up Congenital Heart Disease.