children s health issues
Overview of Heart Defects
Introduction
About one in 100 babies is born with a heart defect. Some are severe, but many are not. Defects may involve abnormal formation of the heart's walls or valves or of the blood vessels that enter or leave the heart. Symptoms of heart birth defects vary with age. Infants may have labored or rapid breathing, poor feeding, sweating or increased breathing rate while feeding, bluish discoloration (cyanosis) of the lips or skin, unusual irritability, or failure to gain weight. Toddlers may tire easily during activity or have a rapid heart beat. Older children and adolescents may have decreased activity tolerance, chest pain during activity, awareness of heartbeats (palpitations), dizziness, or fainting. During examination, a doctor may notice abnormal skin color, abnormal pulsations of the left side of the chest, a heart murmur or other abnormal sounds, a rapid heart beat, rapid or labored breathing, weak pulses, and/or a large liver. Echocardiography (ultrasonography of the heart) helps identify almost all heart defects. Treatment includes open-heart surgery for severe defects, use of a catheter with a balloon at its tip to open or widen valves or blood vessels, use of a device placed by catheter to close certain holes or extra blood vessels, or medications. The most common birth defect of the heart is a Bicuspid Aortic Valve . The aortic valve is the valve that opens with each heartbeat to allow blood to flow from the heart to the body. A normal aortic valve has three cusps, or leaflets. When the valve is bicuspid, it has only two cusps instead of three. Bicuspid aortic valve usually does not cause problems in infancy or childhood so it may not be diagnosed until people become adults. The most common heart defects that are diagnosed in infancy and childhood are About one in 100 babies is born with a heart defect. 