Echocardiographic analysis of valvular heart diseases over one decade in Nigeria

This was a hospital-based study designed to determine the prevalence and pattern of valvular heart diseases (VHD) seen at the echocardiographic laboratory of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria. It was also aimed at evaluating the age and gender distribution, as well as the aetiological diagnosis, of these disease presentations. All the 2527 patients referred for echocardiography over the 10 year period from February 1991 to January 2001 were consecutively studied. VHDs were diagnosed in 957 (38%) of the patients. There were 529 males and 428 females, with an age range of 6 months to 89 years. One hundred and forty-eight (16%) of them presented in the first two decades of life. Mitral valve diseases accounted for 654 (68%), aortic valve diseases 233 (25%), tricuspid valve diseases 51 (5%) and pulmonary valve diseases 19 (2%) of the cases. All four valves were involved in 15 (2%) patients. Rheumatic aetiology was the most common presumptive diagnosis, with 568 (59%) patients. The frequency pattern of VHDs in this study was high. This poses a number of challenges, one of which is the need for availability of interventions, such as non-invasive and minimally invasive surgeries.