Congenital Heart Disease

Congenital heart disease is the most common birth defect. Its level of severity, as well as the treatment to be carried out, depend on each case. Currently the level of survival has increased notably.

Congenital heart disease is a problem that affects approximately 1% of live births. It is a disease that has its origin during pregnancy, as the baby’s heart develops. The word ‘congenital’ refers to the fact that the pathology is present at birth.

Statistics indicate that congenital heart disease is the most common birth defect. Thanks to advances in science, there are currently more adults with this problem than babies born with it.

This means that survival against this disease has increased significantly. Those who reach adulthood, even suffering from congenital heart disease, require detailed and continuous monitoring to prevent complications.

What is congenital heart disease

Rather than talking about congenital heart disease, one should talk about congenital heart disease, in the plural. In reality it is a group of diseases whose common characteristic is the presence of structural alterations in the heart .

These alterations are produced by a failure in the formation of the organ, during the embryonic period. The baby’s heart begins to form from conception, but it is not until eight weeks of pregnancy that it completes its development.

For the heart to form, normally, it is necessary to complete a series of successive stages. Generally, congenital heart disease occurs because one of these stages is not completed at the correct time. The result is an abnormal heart.

Causes

In the vast majority of cases, it is impossible to establish the specific cause of congenital heart disease. Despite this, the World Health Organization (WHO) has indicated that there are some factors that increase the risk of suffering from these pathologies. These are:

• Genetic factors. Family history increases the risk of developing these pathologies. Likewise, congenital heart diseases are usually part of some chromosomal or genetic syndromes, such as Down syndrome, DiGeorge syndrome and others.
• Infections. When the mother suffers from infections such as syphilis or rubella, the risk of the embryo suffering from malformations increases.
• Nutritional status. The mother’s overweight, excess vitamin A, lack of iodine or folate, and the presence of diseases such as diabetes mellitus increase the likelihood of abnormal development in the fetus.
• Environmental factors. Exposure to certain chemicals, the consumption of alcohol and / or tobacco, as well as the use of some medications, raise the risk level for the development of congenital diseases.

Symptoms and types of congenital heart disease

Signs of heart disease appear immediately after delivery or months later. The main symptoms of heart disease in the newborn are:

• Difficulty feeding.
• Fast breathing.
• Purple or bluish lips
• Stunted growth.

The different types of congenital heart disease are basically classified into three groups, namely:

• Problems due to excessive passage of blood through the lungs. In this type of pathology there is an increase in pressure and effort in the lungs. Understand problems like:
  • Persistent arterial duct.
  • Interarticular or interventricular communication.
  • Atrioventricular canal.
• Problems due to poor passage of blood through the lungs. Due to them, the body does not receive enough oxygen. They generate the classic blue or purple color on the lips. They include problems such as:
  • Tricuspid atresia.
  • Pulmonary atresia
  • Transposition of the great arteries.
  • Tetralogy of Fallot.
  • Double right ventricular outlet.
  • Arterial trunk.
• Problems due to poor blood flow to the body. Malformed chambers of the heart or blockages in blood vessels prevent blood from flowing into the body. They include coarctation of the aorta and aortic stenosis.

Other data to take into account

To prevent congenital heart disease, it is recommended that the mother have regular medical check-ups during pregnancy. Also, that you only use medications authorized by the professional who is monitoring you and that you avoid being exposed to harmful chemicals.

If you have diabetes mellitus, you should keep your blood sugar under control. However, no matter how careful you are, sometimes it is impossible to prevent heart disease. There are genetic, and even unknown, factors that give rise to this disease.

Congenital heart diseases have different levels of severity. It all depends on the nature and severity of the malformation. Sometimes, the pathologies must be resolved as soon as the baby is born and, other times, they allow waiting for the child to grow.