The objective of this study was to ascertain the incidence of congenital heart disease in the western part of Gyeongnam Province in Korea.

We enrolled 849 children (M:F=390:459) who were diagnosed with congenital heart disease (CHD) and received echocardiography during January 1997 to December 2005 in Gyeongsang National University Hospital. The subjects were limited to patients born from 1997 to 2004. The CHDs were classified into acyanotic types and cyanotic type. Further, acyanotic type CHDs were divided into shunt type and valvular types.

Numbers of initially diagnosed patients from 1997 to 2004 were as follows: 113, 128, 116, 104, 129, 97, 84, and 78. The median age of initially diagnosed CHD patients was 1 month in the acyanotic type and 0.5 months in cyanotic type. Also, an annual frequency among CHD types and gender ratio were no significant difference in every year. Incidences of CHD from 2000 to 2004 in the western part of Gyeongnam Province were 8.9, 12.7, 10.9, 10.0, and 9.7 per 1,000 live births, respectively.

From 1997 to 2001, 100-130, and from 2002 to 2004, less than 100 patients were diagnosed with CHD. This showed a decrease in the numbers of CHD patients in the last three years. However, the Incidence of CHD was 0.89-1.24% during the last five years. Therefore, the decrease in the annual frequency of CHD was due to the recent decline in birth rate in Korea.