Background: Cardiac defects are the most common type of birth defects . Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) is a common cardio-vascular malformation, it is caused by the spontaneous malformation of the interatrial septum resulting in one or more openings, commonly referred to as holes in the heart .
Patients and methods : This study is a prospective hospital based study involving all children at the age from 0 to 18 years diagnosed by echo-cardiography as having isolated atrial septal defect and admitted to paediatric department , intermediate care and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) ; also out patient clinic at Sohag university hospital during the period from January 2012 to January 2013 .
Results : We studied [65] patients diagnosed by trans-thoracic echo-cardiography as isolated atrial septal defect (ASD) ,Their ages ranged from 5 days to 13 years with Mean ± SD ( 2.27 ± 2.8 years) . The main presenting Symptoms included ; reccurent chest infections , respiratory distress, feeding difficulties, exertional dyspnea,failure to thrive, manifestations of heart failure , and permanent cyanosis . Echo findings demonstrated that,the majority of cases had ASDII , followed by ASDI , then combined ASD , and less common type was sinus venosus ASD .
Conclusion : The great majority of infants with ASDII are most often asymptomatic. Frequently,the condition is detected by a murmur on routine physical examination when they are school-aged children.