Congenital heart defects following maternal rubella during pregnancy.

The occurrence of various congenital anomalies, including heart defects, in children whose mothers had suffered from rubella during pregnancy was originally described by Gregg (1941) in Australia and these observations have been confirmed by many other workers. There is, however, surprisingly little detailed information available about the particular types of congenital heart defect that may occur. The matter is of considerable interest to cardiologists, for maternal rubella is one of the few known etiological factors in congenital heart disease. In Gregg's (1941) original report a patent ductus arteriosus was found at post-mortem examination in 3 infants. Swan et al. (1943) also found a patent ductus arteriosus at necropsy in 3 patients, and in one of these a small ventricular septal defect was present as well. Dogramaci and Green (1947) in a series of 434 cases of congenital heart disease found 5 patients whose mothers had suffered from rubella during pregnancy; patent ductus arteriosus occurred twice, Fallot's tetralogy once, and ventricular septal defect twice, one of these with pulmonary stenosis as an additional lesion. Jackson (1950) found seven children whose mothers had suffered from rubella during pregnancy among 343 cases of congenital heart disease proven at operation or at post-mortem examination: all seven had a patent ductus arteriosus and one of these had pulmonary stenosis and a small ventricular septal defect as well. Campbell (1949) among 243 cases found 4 following maternal rubella, all with Fallot's tetralogy and one with an atrial septal defect as well and two with cataract as well: two of these four followed rubella in 1940 during the same epidemic that was so severe in Australia. Gibson and Lewis (1952) reported 17 cases following maternal rubella, one each of atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, and Fallot's tetralogy, and in the remaining 14 a patent ductus arteriosus, combined with ventricular septal defect in two cases and with pulmonary stenosis and coarctation of the aorta in one each.