Underlying congenital heart disease in Nigerian children with pneumonia

Background: Pneumonia is a common cause of childhood morbidity and mortality globally. Some congenital heart disease (CHD) may predispose their sufferer to bronchopneumonia.
Objective: To evaluate the contribution of CHD to pneumonia in children seen in a tertiary hospital.
Methods: Over a year, consecutive children diagnosed radiologically with pneumonia were evaluated echocardiographically for CHD. Certain characteristics in children with pneumonia and CHD were compared to those without CHD.
Results: There were 121 children with pneumonia of which 61(50.40%) were males and their mean age was 10.2 ± 10.93 months. The prevalence of CHD was 14(11.57%), the commonest CHD was ventricular septal defect (VSD) in 7(50.00%). Most of the CHD with septal defect had moderate to large defects. Children with CHD were 3 and 256 times more likely to have heart failure and murmur respectively compared to those without CHD, p = 0.084 and <0.0001. Children with CHD stayed longer in the hospital 11.50 ± 7.03 days than those without CHD 7.38 ± 5.34 days, p = 0.012.
Conclusion: The children with CHD were more likely to have heart failure and murmur compared to those without CHD. Prevalence of CHD in children with pneumonia in this study is high, evaluation of children with pneumonia for CHD is therefore recommended.