People born with heart defects may face a higher lifetime risk for HF, according to findings published in Circulation. Niklas Bergh, MD, and colleagues compared 89,532 people born with heart defects with 890,469 people without defects. During an average of 25 years, 7.8% of people with congenital defects were diagnosed with HF. In people born with healthy hearts, 1.1% developed HF during an average 27 years. Overall, lifetime risk for HF was 8.7 times higher for people born with heart defects. Those with more complex defects faced a three-fold higher risk for HF than those with less complex defects.
