EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY OF

CONGENITAL HEART DISEASES

IN BRAZIL
Vanessa Faria de Almeida Schneider¹; Larissa de Lima Nunes¹; Inaiê Maiala
Almeida¹; Ana Gabriela de Farias¹; Leandro Rozi ¹.
¹Instituição Faculdade Pequeno Príncipe, Curitiba – PR.
E-mail para contato: vanessafda@yahoo.com.br

Introduction: Congenital Heart Diseases (CHD) are abnormalities in cardiocirculatory structure or function that
occur in the intrauterine period, being diagnosed during pregnancy or after birth. They range from
communications between cavities that regress spontaneously, to large malformations that require several
invasive procedures, which can result in intrauterine death, in childhood or even in adulthood.
Objective: To estimate the prevalence of CHDs and their most frequent subtypes in Brazil, from the years 2017
to 2021.
Methods: An observational epidemiological survey was carried out using data from the Information System on
Live Births (SINASC) and DataSUS, available by the Ministry of Health. We analyzed, through descriptive
statistics, the incidences at birth and the prevalence in that period, bringing information according to the country's
regions for every 10,000 live births.
Results: In the total of 5 years researched, 14,748 cases of Congenital Malformations Of The Circulatory System
(Q20-Q28) occurred in Brazil. Its highest incidence (18.59) was in 2017 in the Southeast region. Among the
subtypes of the disease, the Southeast region continues in highlight due to Congenital Malformations Of The
Cardiac Septum (Q21), with a prevalence of 7.79, reaching its highest incidence (8.87) in 2017. The greatest
rates of this subtype correspond to Atrial Septal Defect (Q21.1), with a prevalence of 5.09 and its highest
incidence of 6.04 occurred in 2020. Another highlighted subtype concerns Other Congenital Heart Malformations
(Q24), which reached a prevalence of 4.74 in the South of the country and its highest incidence of 5.17 in 2020 –
its highest rates account for Unspecified Heart Malformations (Q24.9), with a prevalence of 3.77 and its highest
incidence of 4.02 occurred in 2018. A fact that draws attention is that, in the sum of the 5 years, more than 65%
of cases of CHD occurred in the Southeast region, information that opens valuable precedents for new research.
Conclusions: It is a fact that the difficulty in diagnosing Congenital Heart Diseases represents a significant
Global Health Problem, mobilizing public policies for early diagnosis, which in Brazil has the “Teste do
coraçãozinho” (Little Heart Test), Morphological Ultrasound Exams, and Fetal Echocardiography. Despite this, it
is worth mentioning that there is a disparity in access to these resources, which represents another challenge to
the issue and may indicate underreporting of cases.

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