children s health issues
Pulmonary Valve Stenosis in Children
Introduction
Pulmonary valve stenosis is a narrowing of the pulmonary valve (sometimes called the pulmonic valve), which opens to allow blood to flow from the right ventricle to the lungs. The heart valve between the right ventricle and the artery to the lungs is narrowed. In most children, the only symptom is a heart murmur, but, if the narrowing is severe in an infant, a bluish color to the skin (cyanosis) and signs of right heart failure (such as fatigue and enlargement of the liver) are possible. The diagnosis is suspected based on a heart murmur heard with a stethoscope and is confirmed with echocardiography. Balloon valvuloplasty to open the valve or surgery to reconstruct it is sometimes needed. (See also Overview of Heart Defects . For this disorder in adults, see In most children with pulmonary valve stenosis, the valve is mildly to moderately narrowed, making the right ventricle pump a bit harder and at a higher pressure to propel blood through the valve. Severe narrowing increases pressure in the right ventricle and may limit the amount of blood that can reach the lungs. When pressure in the right ventricle becomes extremely high, the valve leading into the right ventricle may leak, forcing oxygen-poor blood back into the right atrium and then through a hole in the atrial wall ( Atrial and Ventricular Septal Defects ), causing 