Heart defects

What it is?

A normal heart is a strong, tirelessly working muscle pump. It is approximately the size of a human fist. The heart has four chambers: the upper two are called atria, and the lower two are called ventricles. Blood flows sequentially from the atria to the ventricles, and then to the great arteries thanks to the four heart valves. The valves open and close, allowing blood to flow in only one direction. Accordingly, heart defects are congenital or acquired changes in the structures of the heart (valves, septa, walls, outgoing vessels) that disrupt the movement of blood inside the heart or through the systemic and pulmonary circulation.

Why does this happen?

Congenital diseases are those that developed before birth or during childbirth, and they are not necessarily hereditary. Congenital heart defects occur during the period from the second to the eighth week of pregnancy and occur in 5-8 out of a thousand newborns.

The causes of most congenital defects of the cardiovascular system still remain unknown. True, it is known that if there is one child in a family with a heart defect, the risk of having other children with this kind of defect increases somewhat, but still remains quite low - from 1 to 5 percent.

Congenital heart defects can also be caused by exposure of the mother to radiation, or be the result of the mother taking alcohol, drugs, or certain medications (lithium, warfarin) during pregnancy. Viral and other infections suffered by a woman in the first trimester of pregnancy (rubella, influenza, hepatitis B) are also dangerous.

Recent studies have shown that children of women who are overweight or obese are 36 percent more likely to be born with congenital heart disease and other cardiovascular problems than children of women of normal weight. The reason for the connection between mothers' weight and the risk of heart disease in their unborn children has not yet been established.

The most common cause of acquired heart disease is rheumatism, less commonly - sepsis, atherosclerosis, trauma or syphilis.

What are heart defects?

The most common and severe birth defects can be divided into two main groups. The first group includes heart defects caused by the presence of bypass tracts (shunts), due to which oxygenated blood coming from the lungs is pumped back into the lungs. This increases the load on both the right ventricle and the vessels carrying blood to the lungs. These types of vices include:

1. non-closure of the ductus arteriosus - the vessel through which the fetus’s blood bypasses the lungs that are not yet working;

2. atrial septal defect (preservation of the opening between the two atria at the time of birth);

3. ventricular septal defect (gap between the left and right ventricles).

Another group of defects is associated with the presence of obstructions to blood flow, leading to an increase in the workload of the heart. These include, for example, coarctation (narrowing) of the aorta or narrowing of the exhaust valves of the heart (pulmonary or aortic valve stenosis).

Valve insufficiency in adults can occur due to gradual degeneration of the valves in two types of congenital disorders:

1. in 1 percent of people, the arterial valve has not three, but only two leaflets,

2. 5 percent have mitral valve prolapse. This is a non-life-threatening disease that does not require surgery. The fact is that the valve located between the left ventricle and the left atrium (mitral valve) consists of two leaflets. When the ventricles begin to contract, the mitral valve leaflets must close tightly and prevent blood from flowing back into the atria, which they cannot do.

To top off these heart troubles, many types of congenital disorders of the heart and blood vessels occur not only individually, but also in various combinations. For example, tetralogy of Fallot, the most common cause