Dhanya Vijayan1 , Ashok Ramakrishnan2 , Jayakumar Christudas3
BACKGROUND This study aims to measure the prevalence of asymptomatic cardiac valvular anomalies in females with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. The association between severity of scoliosis and prevalence of valvular anomalies was also looked into. The secondary objective of this study was to enumerate the other systemic comorbidities in adolescent onset scoliosis. We also attempted to establish the association between these co-morbidities and valvular anomalies in our study population. METHODS Pre anaesthesia assessment records of 84 females, with adolescent-onset idiopathic scoliosis who presented to our hospital for surgical correction, were analysed after obtaining permission from the human ethics committee. RESULTS The mean age at the time of diagnosis was 14.4 ± 2.03 years. Using echocardiograph and colour Doppler, 29 valvular lesions were detected in 20 patients, totalling a prevalence rate of 23.8%. The most common valvular anomaly was Mitral valve prolapse with a prevalence of 44.83%. The severity of scoliosis did not have a significant association with the presence of valvular anomalies. (chisquare value 2.487 with a p-value of 0.478 for thoracic curve, chi-square value 1.044 with a p-value of 0.903 for lumbar scoliosis). Thirteen patients in the study group presented with systemic diseases. The association between systemic diseases and valvular anomalies was found to be significant. In 8 out of 13 patients with comorbidities, valvular anomalies were detected (61.5%) whereas valvular anomalies were diagnosed in 12 out of 71 patients without systemic diseases (16.9%). CONCLUSIONS From this study, it was concluded that patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis exhibited a spectrum of asymptomatic valvular anomalies irrespective of the severity of the disease. Systemic diseases, when present in adolescent scoliosis patients, had a greater prevalence in those with valvular anomalies
