Children's heart infection risk may be increased by some heart birth defects

Children with certain heart birth defects may have an increased risk for bacterial infection of their heart's lining and valves, according to new research in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. The risk for infection may also be increased in children with congenital heart defects who are under 3 or who've had cardiac surgery within the last six months. Using a large Canadian database, researchers looked at the occurrence of infective endocarditis between 1988 and 2010 in 47,518 children with heart defects. On average the risk of infection by age 18 was 6...
Source: Health News from Medical News Today - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart Disease Source Type: news