Abstract

Background: Ventricular septal defect is the most common congenital heart disease. Without early diagnosis and appropriate treatments, this disease can lead to many complications. Objectives: To describe clinical and Doppler echocardiography characteristics of the ventricular septal defect in children; To determine the relevance between clinical and Doppler echocardiography symptoms. Subjects and methods: 56 patients from 0 months to 15 years of age were diagnosed with ventricular septal defect and admitted to Pediatric Center - Hue Central Hospital from March 2018 to April 2019. Set up a cross-sectional study. Results: The most common symptoms are sweating, exercise intolerance, failure to thrive, systolic murmur, and hyperactive precordium. The majority of patients had complications. Over 90 percent of defects were perimembranous. The percentage of failure to thrive, persistent tachypnea, sweating, Harzer sign, reduced murmur intensity, and malnutrition in the group with severe or fixed pulmonary arterial hypertension was higher with statistical significance. Conclusion: Most children with ventricular septal defects were hospitalized with symptoms and complications. Most defects are medium and large on Doppler echocardiography. There is a significant association between symptoms failure to thrive, persistent tachypnea, sweating, chest deformity, Harzer’s sign, reduced murmur intensity, and complications malnutrition and heart failure with the severity of pulmonary arterial pressure hypertension.