Barakat Adeola Animasahun
Background: Most previous publications on echocardiography use in Nigeria emanate from public hospitals and academic settings. This study aims to elucidate the peculiarities of echocardiography use in an urban, private hospital study in pediatric patients.
Methods: Prospective and cross-sectional, involving a review of consecutive echocardiogram done at the Pediatric Cardiology unit of the Reddington multi-specialist hospital between February 2005 to January 2009. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Level of significance set at p<0.05.
Results: The age range of the subjects was three days to 256 months of age, with a mean age of 59.4 +/- 64months and a male to female ratio of 1: 1.1. Approximately thirty-seven percent of all the echocardiographs done were normal. The most common indication for echocardiography was heart murmurs. Ventricular septal defect was the most prevalent finding based on murmurs. All Patients whose indication for echocardiography was chest pain had normal findings. Congenital heart diseases constituted 108 (85%) of all the abnormal echocardiographic findings.
Conclusion: Our findings in this study generally seem to fall in line with the appropriate use of heart murmur as an indication for echocardiography. There is a high incidence of LVH in patients evaluated via echocardiogram for obesity. There is a similar distribution in congenital heart diseases as compared to other studies both in private and public settings, as well as developed countries compared to developing nations.
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