Objectives: To investigate the prevalence at live birth of congenital heart disease (CHD) in Taiwan.
Study design: Patients with CHD born from 2000 to 2006 were identified from National Health Insurance databases.
Results: CHD prevalence was 13.08 per 1000 live births: 12.05 (simple, 10.53; severe, 1.51) in male infants and 14.21 (simple, 12.90; severe, 1.32) in female infants. Ventricular septal defect (VSD; 4.0) was the most common defect, followed by secundum atrial septal defect (ASDII; 3.2), patent ductus arteriosus (PDA; 2.0), pulmonary stenosis (PS; 1.2), tetralogy of Fallot (TOF; 0.63), coarctation of aorta (CoA; 0.25), transposition of great arteries (TGA; 0.21), endocardial cushion defect (ECD; 0.20), double outlet of right ventricle (DORV; 0.15), total anomalous pulmonary venous return (TAPVR; 0.11), aortic stenosis (0.09), hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS; 0.062), Ebstein anomaly (0.047), and tricuspid atresia (0.046). Female predominance was observed in VSD, ASDII, PDA, and ECD; and male predominance was observed in TGA and TOF. Ratios of western prevalence to our Asian prevalence were high for HLHS (3.68-4.5), CoA (1.13-1.96), TGA (1.09-1.83), and tricuspid atresia (1.09-2.57), but low for PS (0.15-0.99), TOF (0.41-0.92), and possibly ASDII.
Conclusions: In this Asian population, the prevalence of CHD was at the high end of the reported range, with more PS and TOF, but fewer left-sided obstructions, TGA, and tricuspid atresia.