children s health issues
Aortic Valve Stenosis in Children
Diagnosis of Aortic Valve Stenosis in Children
Echocardiography A doctor suspects aortic valve stenosis after detecting a particular heart murmur and sometimes a clicking sound when listening to the heart. A heart murmur is a sound created by turbulent blood flow through narrowed or leaking heart valves or through abnormal heart structures. The pulses in the arms and legs may be weaker than normal. Infants may have signs of shock, including very poor or absent pulses, poor blood flow to the body with cold hands and feet and grayish pallor of the skin, breathing distress, and an enlarged liver. Echocardiography and Other Ultrasound Procedures (ultrasonography of the heart) shows the abnormal aortic valve and can measure the "tightness" of the valve. Valve leakage (in which some blood flows back from the aorta into the heart) may also be present. Echocardiography also shows whether the left ventricle is thickened, stretched, or weakened due to the stress of pumping blood through the narrowed valve. Cardiac Catheterization and Coronary Angiography may be used to determine the severity of the narrowing. 