Session 3 - Congenital heart defects Flashcards
What are the groups of causes of congenital heart defects?
- Genetic factors
- Environmental factors
- Maternal infections
Provide an example of genetic disease which has heart defects?
- Downs
- Marfans
Provide examples of enviornmental factors which can cause of heart defects
- Drugs
- Alcohol
Give examples of maternal infections which can cause congenital heart defects
- Rubella
- Toxoplasmosis
What are the most common heart defects?
- ASD
- VSD
What two groups can congenital heart defects be broken into?
- Acyanotic
- Cyanotic
What are the characteristical features of acyanotic heart defects
- Require a hole in the heart
- Shunting of blood from LH to RH
- Blood oxygen levels not effected
What commonly causes acyanotic defects?
-Structural defects such as ASD, VSD and PDA
Apart from structural defects, what other things can cause acyanotic defects?
- Aortic, mitral and pulmonary stenosis
- Coarctation of the aorta
What happens to the blood in the LH in a structural acyanotic defect?
-Returned to the lungs instead of the body
What is an ASD?
-Artial septal defect-> opening anywhere along the atrial septum which persists after birth
What is the most common place for ASD to occur?
-Foreman ovale
What happens to the flow of blood when an ASD is present?
-The blood is shunted from left atrium to right atrium and thus pulmonary bloodflow is greater
What are the haemodynamic effects of an ASD?
- Increased pulmonary blood flow
- RV volume overload
- Pulmonary hypertension (rare)
- Eventually RH failure
Why is there no mixed blood pumped around the body with an ASD?
- There is higher pressure within the LA and thus blood flows from left to right
- Therefore oxygenated blood mixes with deoxygenated blood in the RA which gets pumped to the RV then the lungs to become oxygenated
What is the name for when the foreman ovale doesnt close?
-Patent foreman ovale
Why is PFO not a true ASD?
-Remains clinically silent
What is a paradoxical embolism and how does it occur?
- An embolism of the venous system which enters the systemic circulation
- Occurs when there is an ASD (including PFO) and RA pressure increases, even transiently, allowing blood to flow from right to left, ie allowing passage of the embolus
What is a VSD?
- Ventricular Septal Defect
- An opening anywhere along the interventricular septum
How common are VSD?
150-350/100,000 live births
How common are ASD?
67/100,000 live births
Which way does blood flow with a VSD?
-From left to right