Epidemiology of congenital heart disease with emphasis on sex-related aspects

Abstract

Gender differences in prevalence, manifestation, treatment outcomes, and prognosis have been well known for acquired heart disease such as coronary artery disease. Regarding congenital heart disease (CHD), it is recognized that the incidence of each congenital heart defect varies according to sex observed during a time span of more than 40 years. As diagnostic and surgical methods for CHD have achieved dramatic advances for the past decades, more newborns with CHD were able to survive and reach adulthood. Thereafter gender differences have begun to be reported on mortality, progress to pulmonary arterial hypertension, treatment outcomes, and prognosis in patients with CHD. However, it has been less known in the field of CHD yet, and this contribution describes information that is relatively well studied to date.