A Descriptive Study about Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Children in a Tertiary Hospital in Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Dilated Cardiomyopathy is the most common form of the cardiomyopathies in children accounting for a significant cause of morbidity and mortality as well as a common indication for heart transplant. Although dilated cardiomyopathy is a common indication for Cardiac transplantation, there are still treatable causes of dilated cardiomyopathy. We aim to document the cases seen in children in a tertiary Hospital in South-Western Nigeria over an eight year period, mode of treatment and their outcomes. Methods: Prospective and cross sectional involving consecutive patients diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy using echocardiography at the Paediatric Department of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Lagos Nigeria as part of a large study between January 2007 and December 2014. Results: Dilated Cardiomyopathy was diagnosed in 22 (1.55%) of children with structural heart disease with a male to female ratio of 1:1.2 with mean age±SD of 4.73±3.50. The most common mode of presentation was congestive cardiac failure which occurred in 54.55% of the study subjects. Ten of the subjects had no identifiable cause for the DCM. Five of the them had Tachycardia induced cardiomyopathy. All but one were treated medically with antifailure drugs and calcium, while only one patient had surgery. Almost half of the patients got well with the above treatment and did not require cardiac transplantation. Conclusion: Rare causes of dilated cardiomyopathy such as tachycardia induced cardiomyopathy, anomalous origin of the left coronary artery arising from the pulmonary artery syndrome, Burns Cardiomyopathy and Adriamycin Induced Cardiomyopathy were documented in this study, all the patients with tarchycardia induced cardiomyopathy and burns cardiomyopathy recovered with medical treatment only.