most common cardiac disease in children
Written by:Heart disease in children is called congenital heart disease. Although there is no obvious cause they can be related to bad habits of the mother during pregnancy. Today treatments are well advanced and the quality of life of children with congenital heart disease can be good if the diagnosis and treatment is adequate and precocious.
Heart disease in children or cardiac disease are known by the name of Congenital Heart Disease.
Causes of congenital heart disease in children
The causes of congenital heart diseases are usually unknown in most cases. However, sometimes they can be related to chronic alcohol or drugs, or diseases of the mother during pregnancy, such as diabetes mellitus or some infections.
Heart function and heart disease most common in children
The heart has two atria, which receive blood from the veins, and two ventricles, which are really in charge of expelling all the blood to the body.
Most of the changes involve defects in the formation of the heart, the most frequent being a hole between the two ventricles, what we call ventricular septal defect and can cause symptoms more or less depending on the size of the hole.
Warning signs of congenital heart disease in children
The most common symptoms of heart disease are difficulty with shots or sweating or increased breathing rate, depending on the severity of the malformation or age of the child.
Other ways to suspect heart disease in a child is observing the appearance of:- Cyanosis, or bluish color on the lips- fatigue- tachycardia- Unconsciousness
Another option is that the child has no symptoms and simply detect by auscultation of a murmur or noise on the heart during physical examination in reviews.
Common complaints in pediatric cardiology
In addition to the blow, why you see most frequently in pediatric cardiology they are:
• Syncope or blackouts. Although most often vasovagal syncope or physiological, be ruled types of arrhythmias or thickening of the heart.• Tachycardia or palpitations. Most are harmless even if they monitor signs of predisposition to sudden death.• Fatigue or chest pain with exercise, where we can order a stress test to check that has no relation to any alteration of angina-like heart.
Diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart disease in children
Although it can be detected largely within the mother's womb during pregnancy using a special ultrasound called fetal echocardiography, the exact diagnosis is confirmed after birth through another ultrasound and / or ECG, depending on the alteration found before birth.
The diagnosis is performed by an expert in pediatric cardiology and the treatment will vary depending on the disorder and can range from surgery, undergoing catheterization, medication, or a combination of all the above, until not even subministrar no treatment and check for worsening clinical condition of the child.
Quality of life of children with congenital heart disease
The quality of life of children depends on the severity of the congenital heart disease interventions received treatment and whether or not has required cardiac transplantation. Most children with heart disease may have a normal life, especially once corrected. However, the worst may not perform moderate exercise and take many checkups, some even in referral hospitals, for which have to travel and miss school.
Thanks to recent advances in surgery and correction by catheterization, can reach adulthood in a large percentage with a quality of life acceptably good, paying some of them as volunteers to help in special camps to other children with heart disease, for example.
