Cardiomegaly in hypoglycaemic small-for-gestational-age infants

The chest X-rays of 15 hypoglycaemic small-for-gestational-age infants showed cardiomegaly in 10 infants, 4 had heart failure. None of the infants had respiratory distress syndrome, congenital heart disease, septicaemia, anaemia or polycythaemia; infants of diabetic mothers were excluded. Cardiomegaly disappeared with the normalization of blood glucose in most of the cases. The cause of the cardiomegaly and heart failure might be related to insufficient cardiac energy substrates in small-for-gestational-age infants. This condition should also be considered in the differential diagnosis of cardiomegaly and heart failure.