Within the field of pediatric heart disease, congenital cardiopathology is the most important issue due to the fact that in these patients a delay of neurodevelopment is the most frequent morbidity. The major aim of this work was to determine the impact of severe congenital cardiopathology (SCC) on the central nervous system (CNS) through the study of the electroencephalogram (EEG) and the assessment of neurodevelopment.
Population and methods: Children under 3 years old, 41 of them presenting SCC and 15 healthy controls (C) were studied. Conventional EEG recording and assessment of neurodevelopment were performed.
Results: In twenty children presenting SCC (48.8%) the EEG was found abnormal (paroxysmal of spikes and sharp waves). Forty of them (97.6%) presented neurodevelopmental alterations, including hypotonia and a delay in gross motor skills. When comparing EEG between SCC and C children, odds ratio was 13.33 (1.602-111) and comparing neurodevelopment delay, it was 35 (3.769-235). Both were statistically significant (p ≤ 0.00039 and p ≤ 0.00038, respectively).
Conclusions: A high percentage of children suffering from SCC exhibited EEG patterns with abnormal epileptic-like activity although without clinical manifestation of seizures. These children also showed delay features in different areas of neurodevelopmental. The assessment of new born carrying some type of severe cardiopathology indicated that they were under high risk of suffering from CNS altered development.