Congestive Cardiomyopathy in Infants and Children Clinical Features and Natural History

Abstract

Fifty infants and children with a diagnosis of congestive cardiomyopathy were reviewed at the Department of Pediatrics, Rama-thibodi Hospital. These patients were followed for an average of 2.9 years. Congestive heart failure was present in 82.6% of the cases. Of these patients, 43% died, 82% within the first year of their illness. Residual heart disease continues in 30%, while 27% made a complete recovery.
Factors that were highly predictive of the clinical course are age, cardiothoracic ratio of initial and subsequent chest X rays and the initial response to treatment. Infants less than 1 year old had a poor prognosis. The higher the cardiothoracic ratio on the initial and subsequent examinations and the poorer the response to medical treatment, the poorer the prognosis.