Clinical assessment of dilated cardiomyopathy in 68 children

Abstract:

Objective：To investigate clinical characteristics of dilated cardiomyopathy（DCM） of children，and improve the awareness of it. Methods：The clinical characteristics，including onset age，symptoms，examinations and prognosis，of patients diagnosed as DCM in Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University，from January 1，2012 to December 31，2018，were retrospectively analyzed. Results：Totally，a sum of 68 children were enrolled，with a ratio of 1∶1.125 between male and female. The mean onset age was （86.6±47.6） months，and the incidence was highest in children aged 1 to 6 years，accounting for 39.7%. When onset，the functional class（FC） was evaluated as Ⅰ（2.9%），Ⅱ（26.5%），Ⅲ（38.2%） and Ⅳ（32.4%）. The echocardiography displayed that left ventricular ejection fraction（LVEF） was （36.4±9.5）%， and left ventricular shortening fraction（LVFS） was （20±5.3）%. Patients were followed up for 1 to 84 months，among which 30 cases（44.1%） were improved，5 cases（7.4%） deteriorated，14 cases（20.6%） were in stable condition，12 cases（17.6%） died，and 7 cases（10.3%） lost. The survival rates at the first，second，third and fifth year were 80.9%，69.4%，63.4% and 62.9%，respectively. The initial LVEF and LVFS varies，with a statistical difference，from groups with different prognosis（LVEF：F=3.920，P=0.019；LVFS：F=4.720，P=0.005）. The incidence of ventricular arrhythmias was higher in the death group and the worsening group than that in other groups. Conclusion：It concludes that DCM occurs in children at an early age. FC，LVEF and the incidence of ventricular arrythmias at baseline were significantly correlated with prognosis. Additionally，a long-term follow-up is important for children with DCM.