Abstract
Objective: In a total of 28,941 health check-ups performed on 10,854 persons at our center between April 2009 and December 2015, 5 cases of congenital heart disease were discovered. The objective of the present study was to examine an effective method of screening for congenital heart disease in adult health check-ups from the characteristics of these cases.
Methods: We investigated the 5 patients diagnosed with congenital heart disease at our center with respect to subjective symptoms, history of pregnancy and childbirth, chest auscultation findings, ECG exams, chest X-ray exams, number of health check-ups up to diagnosis, and prognosis.
Results: The congenital heart disease comprised 3 cases (all women) of atrial septal defect (ASD) and 2 cases (1 woman, 1 man) of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). The abnormal findings were heart murmur only in 2 ASD patients and 2 PDA patients and ECG abnormalities and abnormal second heart sound in chest auscultation in 1 ASD patient. No patient had subjective symptoms and for 2 women who had experienced childbirth, there had been no abnormalities during pregnancy or at childbirth. Based on the chest X-ray exam, no patient was determined to require secondary testing. For 1 patient with ASD and 1 patient with PDA, the diagnosis of congenital heart disease had been made at the first health check-up but it had taken several check-ups for the diagnosis to be made in the other 3 patients. Catheter treatment was applied for 3 ASD patient and 1 PDA patient.
Conclusion: Congenital heart disease is an important disease that should be screened for in adult health check-ups but there are many cases of difficulty in diagnosis due to lack of characteristic findings. Chest auscultation is important in such cases.
