Iron Deficiency and Behavioral Disorders in Children with Congenital Heart Disease

Introduction: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common birth defect. Emotional and behavioral problems are among the most prevalent chronic health conditions of childhood and often have serious negative consequences for a child’s academic achievement and social development. Iron deficiency is one of the most common nutrient deficiencies. Aim of The Work: To determine the effect of iron deficiency and congenital heart disease on the behavior of children. Subjects and Methods: This is a case control study of 90 children, 60 children had congenital heart disease they divided into two groups: 30 cyanotic and 30 acyanotic. All studied children subjected to the following: Assessment of behavioral disturbance using an adapted Arabic translation of. Conners’ PARENT rating scale and specific laboratory investigations including: serum ferritin, serum iron, total iron binding capacity, transferrin saturation capacity. Results: Behavior disorders were more frequent among congenital heart disease patients (33, 3%) compared to controls (13.3%) regardless the type of congenital heart disease either. Iron deficiency was more prevalent among children with congenital heart disease 25 (41.6 %) in comparison to control group 4 (13.3%) specially in cyanotic heart disease as we found 43.3% had iron deficiency in comparision to cyanotic heart disease (33%) . .There was slight increase in behavioral disorder in children with iron deficiency specially in those with cyanotic heart disease. Conclusion: Children with CHD are at higher risk of behavioural disorder specially those how suffering from iron deficiency.