‘ CHILDHOOD HEART DEFECTS MAY UP DEMENTIA RISK’

London, Feb. 13: People born with heart defects who survive into adulthood may be at higher risk of developing dementia before 65 years of age, according to a study.

With improved newborn and childhood treatments, more people born with heart defects survive into adulthood, researchers said.

A previous study estimated that about 1.4 million adults are living with congenital heart defects in the US, they said.

“Previous studies showed that people born with heart defects have a higher risk of neurodevelopmental problems in childhood, such as epilepsy and autism, but this is, to our knowledge, the first study to examine the potential for dementia later in adult life,” said Carina N Bagge from Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark.

Researchers examined the occurrence of dementia in 10,632 mostly Caucasian adults ( 46 per cent male) born with heart defects between 1890 and 1982, matching each with 10 members of the population of the same gender born the same year — PTI