The epidemiology of arrhythmia in infants: A population-based study

Aim: Cardiac arrhythmias are an important cause of morbidity in infants. Although the spectrum of types of arrhythmia has been reported, there has been no previous population-based study of the incidence of arrhythmias in infancy. Our aim was to define the population incidence of arrhythmia in infants. Methods: We based this study on the Northern Region of England with a resident population of 3.1 million and an annual live birth rate of 33 000. We identified all clinically significant arrhythmias in infants in 1991-2010 from the regional cardiac database. All diagnoses were based on analysis of the electrocardiogram. Infants with only the substrate for arrhythmia (such as QT prolongation or ventricular pre-excitation) were excluded. Results: In 20 years, there were 662 698 live births. We identified 162 cases of newly diagnosed arrhythmia of which 22 had associated structural cardiovascular malformations. The incidence of arrhythmia was 24.4 per 100 000 live births. The most common arrhythmia was atrioventricular re-entry tachycardia with an incidence of 16.3 per 100 000. Complete atrioventricular block and atrial flutter both occurred at 2.1 cases per 100 000 live births, and other arrhythmias were rare. Conclusions: This study is the first to report a population incidence of arrhythmia in infants.