Congenital Heart Disease: What are it, symptoms, causes, and types?

Congenital heart disease is one of the most common types of birth defect which needs medical care and good treatment for the people who are suffering from this disease. This is the kind of heart defect or saying in another way that your heart snags a problem when you have born. Or it can be said in simple words, that your heart is having a small hole which is more severe.

Congenital heart disease is an abnormality of the heart at present from birth and this problem can majorly affect the heart walls, heart valves, and blood vessels. This problem can arise from simple conditions to complex ones which can be life-threatening also. As per the reports, there are about 1 million adults, 1 million children having this disease, especially in the USA.

Symptoms of Congenital Heart disease

There are several symptoms of Congenital Heart disease (CHD) Or congenital heart defect which can be majorly detected during the pregnancy ultrasound and if the doctor hears an abnormal heartbeat then they may further move to some clinical investigation and perform some tests.

In some cases, the major symptoms of congenital heart defect may not appear right after the birth and in some cases; it might have several effects like as below:

  • Feeding difficulties
  • Delayed in growth
  • Chest pain
  • Low birth weight
  • Breathlessness or trouble in breathing
  • Faint, swelling, fatigue, dizziness
  • Bluish skin, fingers, toes, etc.

Visit a pediatric heart specialist if you notice these symptoms in your child.

Causes of Congenital Heart disease

Congenital heart disease might occur as the result of early development problems in the structure of the heart and this defect might be typically interference with the normal flow of blood through the heart. As per the researchers they are not still sure about why does the heart fails and to develop this correctly they have suspected some major causes which include the heart defect may run in families or can say genetic.

If you are taking certain prescription drugs at the time of pregnancy it puts a child at higher risk for a heart defect. By using illegal drugs or alcohol can also increase the risk of a heart defect in newborn babies. The mothers who already had a viral infection during the first time of their pregnancy might have these problems more.

Types of Congenital Heart Disease

Although, there are many different types of congenital heart defects and these can be mainly divided into 3 major categories. In the heart valve defects, the valves inside the heart can direct the blood flow or may leak the flow of the blood. In the heart wall defects, the natural walls might exist between the left and the right side of the upper and the lower chambers of the heart. In blood vessel defects, the arteries and the veins which have majorly carried out the blood to the heart and back to the body might not sometimes work properly or function in the right way.

Conclusion

Women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant must take care of certain things to lower down the risk of Congenital heart disease and this might help them and their babies to grow and live life in a safe and better way.for more information please visit