Morbidity Pattern of Pediatric Cardiovascular Diseases and Disorders: Comparative Data Analysis
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Abstract
Pediatric patients with cardiovascular disease / disorders constitute a fairly large but hitherto not a well recognized group in our hospitals. These patients attend our health delivery system with widely different clinical problems under equally variable circumstances.
A patient may present the local doctor with an apparently benign problem like recurrent cough or feeding difficulty. A vigilant doctor may by chance pick up a murmur during the course of an intercurrent infection and then send the patient for opinion to the pediatrician or cardiologist. A patient may present as a pediatric emergency at the casualty or out patient department of a district or teaching hospital.
Lacking an effective primary health care system the vast majority of the patients with cardiovascular disease / disorder in the community go undiagnosed in the initial stages. Those who have advanced disease / disorders either succumb to the severity / complications or seek medical help when it is already too late. Even those patients who seek help early enough are not too lucky either. They are lost on the enormity of the common pediatric problems both in the out patient department, as well as wards of busy hospitals.
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