Birthweight of infants with congenital heart disease
R. J. Levy, A. Rosenthal, D. C. Fyler and A. S. Nadas
A subnormal birth weight distribution was noted in a population of infants
seen during the first year of life for major congenital heart disease
(CHD). When arranged according to cardiac diagnostic categories, 17 of the
21 major cardiac lesions were associated with subnormal birth weight
distribution. Major extracardiac anomalies present in 19.9% of all infants
appeared not to influence the birth weight distributions of either the
total population of 19 of 21 cardiac lesion categories. An increased
incidence (6.1%) of small-for-dates infants was observed in the study
population. Extra-cardiac anomalies occurred in 28% of the small-for-dates
infants. Survival to 1 year of age was 42.8% for the total population with
CHD and 49.2% in the small-for-dates group.
