Nour, 1999, detected a significant difference in breath diffusion capacity between patients with congenital atrial septal defect and those with advanced rheumatic dominant mitral stenosis, for both males and females.

[Nour MM. Pulmonary diffusion capacity in mitral stenosis and atrial septal defect. Kuwait Med J. 1999; 31(4): 353-6.]

Mansour et al. 2005, conducted a retrospective study of 240 consecutive patients with congenital heart disease and found 62 cases of ventricular or atrial septal defects. 

Chehab et al. (2007) compared consanguinity rates between patients with congeital heart malformations (1585 patients) and patients with heart defects lacking malformation (1979 control patients). Consanguinity was significantly more prevalent in patients with congenitally malformed hearts compared to controls. Consanguinity among patients versus controls of 1st-degree cousins, 1st & 2nd-degree cousins, and a group with any degree of consanguinity showed 19.4%, 25.7%, and 27.4% versus 14.4%, 20.3%, and 23.9%. Patients with tetralogy of Fallot, valvar aortic stenosis, and atrial septal defect had a significantly higher percentage of consanguineous parents than the controls.

Hassadi et al, 1989, studied 200 subjects with mitral valve prolapse (MVP) and found atrial septal defects in 2.5% of the cases. 

Subramanyan et al, 2000, conducted a study to analyze the incidence and spectrum of congenital heart disease (CHD) in the Sultanate of Oman from 1994 to 1996. Incidence of CHD was found to be 7.1/1000 live births. 14.4% of 992 newborns diagnosed with CHDs had atrial septal defect. The number of atrioventricular septal defects (5.9%) reported in Oman were noted to be higher than other countries.

Venugopalan and Jain, 2002, reported on an asymptomatic 4-month-old boy, who was accidentally detected to have an atrial septal defect, secondary to a giant right atrial aneurysm.  

Venugopalan and Agarwal, 2003, conducted a retrospective study to identify the pattern of congenital heart defects in children with Down Syndrome.   

Sawardekar, 2005, noted that of the 21,988 children born during a 10-year period in a hospital in Nizwa, 5 had atrial septal defects. 

Hijazi et al, 1998, presented a case of a 25-year-old male with a large secondum atrial septal defect associated with a coronary artery fistula between the right coronary artery and the right atrium.

Almawazini and AlGhamdi, 2011, screened 2610 children from the Albaha region with congenital heart disease and found 55 cases of ASD. 

El Hag, 1994, conducted a retrospective study of 179 children and found 100 cases of congenital heart disease. The patients suffered from ventricular septal defect (VSD), Fallot's tetralogy, pulmonary stenosis, patent ductus arteriosus, atrioventricular septal defect and secondum atrial septal defect.

Hamdan et al. 2015 reported that out of 1950 pregnant women undergoing fetal echocardiography, 152 fetuses were diagnosed with congenital heart disease. 139 of these were of Arab ethnic background and 60-70% of the Arabs were of Emirati origin. Parental consanguinity was noted in 69% of the Arab cases (96/139). Findings in the cohort included left heart obstruction (n=30), conotruncal malformations (n=26), septal defects (n=22), cardiomyopathy (n=19), right heart obstruction (n=8), arrhythmia (n=8), heterodoxy syndromes (n=3), cardiac tumors (n=3) and anomalous venous connection (n=1).