Understanding Congenital Heart Disease: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment

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Causes And Treatment For Congenital Heart Disease

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Causes and Treatment for Congenital Heart Disease

Congenital heart disease, also referred to as congenital heart defects, is an umbrella term for any heart condition that you are born with. Congenital heart disease can range from minor conditions that never cause problems or develop into more serious heart issues, or more serious conditions that require treatment. Congenital heart defects occur when the walls, valves, or chambers of the heart muscle, or the blood vessels near the heart, do not develop normally before birth.

You may think heart problems only develop later in life, but for some, they are present from birth. Congenital heart disease encompasses a range of heart defects that occur before a baby is born. If you or your child have been diagnosed with a congenital heart defect or if there’s a family history of heart abnormalities, it’s crucial to consult with our Atlanta heart doctors for expert care and management.

Congenital heart disease refers to structural problems with the heart that are present at birth. Think of it as your heart’s blueprint, with a few design flaws. These defects can affect the heart’s walls, valves, or blood vessels, impacting how blood flows through the heart and to the rest of the body.

You might wonder why congenital heart disease is such a concern, especially if you or your child seem healthy. The reality is that even minor heart defects can lead to complications over time. Some defects may cause immediate health issues in newborns, while others might not show symptoms until adulthood. Left untreated, congenital heart defects can lead to problems like heart failure, irregular heartbeats, or an increased risk of infection.

Symptoms of congenital heart disease can vary widely depending on the type of defect. In infants, you might notice bluish skin, poor feeding, or difficulty breathing. As children grow, they may experience fatigue during physical activity, dizziness, or fainting spells. Adults with undiagnosed congenital heart defects might experience shortness of breath, irregular heartbeats, or swelling in the extremities.

By visiting our Atlanta heart doctors, you’re taking a vital step in managing congenital heart disease. Our cardiologists are experts in diagnosing and treating various congenital heart defects. They can perform specialized tests like echocardiograms, cardiac MRIs, or cardiac catheterization to get a detailed picture of the heart’s structure and function.

During your visit, you’ll receive personalized testing and treatment. Our doctors will assess the type and severity of the heart defect and its impact on overall health. They’ll work with you to develop a management plan, which might involve regular monitoring, medications to support heart function, or, in some cases, surgical procedures to repair the defect.

Don’t let congenital heart disease hold you or your child back. Schedule an appointment with our Atlanta heart doctors today to ensure you receive the best possible care. While congenital heart defects are lifelong conditions, with proper management, many people with these conditions lead full, active lives. Our cardiologists support you at every stage, from diagnosis through ongoing treatment, helping you or your child achieve the best possible quality of life.

Learn about congenital heart disease testing and treatments and how CVG provides comprehensive cardiac care.

Types Of Congenital Heart Disease

The type of congenital heart disease depends on where the birth defect occurred, and there are three main types that can be present.

Blood Vessel Defects

If your blood vessels have developed to be too narrow at certain points, this will cause your heart to work harder to pump blood. The vessels may also link incorrectly, meaning that they are sending blood in the wrong directions such as oxygen-poor blood to the body or oxygen-rich blood to the lungs, instead of the other way around as it should be.

Common blood vessel defects include aortic coarctation, patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), pulmonary artery stenosis, anomalous pulmonary venous return, and transposition of the great arteries, when two main arteries leaving the heart are reversed.

Heart Valve Defects

These defects occur when your heart valves did not develop properly, leading to your heart valves being too narrow, not closing properly, being completely closed or being misshapen. These conditions make it hard for your heart to pump blood through your body. Common heart valve defects include bicuspid aortic valve disease, mitral valve prolapse (MVP), and Ebstein’s anomaly.

Septal Defects

These defects refer to holes in the heart tissue, either in the walls between the two upper chambers (atria) or the two lower chambers (ventricles) of the heart. Septal defects cause oxygen-rich blood from the lungs to mix with oxygen-poor blood from the body, meaning that blood leaving the heart may have less oxygen than usual. Common septal defects include atrial septal defect (ASD), patent foramen oval (PFO), and ventricular septal defect (VSD).

Causes Of Congenital Heart Disease

Researchers have yet to discover what exactly causes congenital heart disease, although there seems to be a correlation showing increased risk of your heart not developing properly if your mother had rubella or influenza (flu) during the first three months of pregnancy, had Type 1 diabetes or Type 2 diabetes, took ibuprofen when 30 weeks or more pregnant, or took certain medications for acne, bipolar disorder or seizures. In many cases, congenital heart disease develops in conjunction with other genetic diseases or disorders, such as Down syndrome and Turner syndrome.

Testing For Congenital Heart Disease

To diagnose whether you have congenital heart disease, your doctor will begin by asking if you experience any symptoms and what they may be, as well as your medical history. Your doctor will then conduct a physical exam and listen to your heart with a stethoscope. After this, they will order a variety of tests to determine which form of congenital heart disease you are suffering from.

These tests can include a chest X-ray, echocardiogram, electrocardiogram (EKG), exercise stress test, heart MRI, heart CT scan, pulse oximetry, and transesophageal echogram (TEE). Your doctor may also conduct cardiac catheterization, which can be used as a form of treatment as well.

Treatment For Congenital Heart Disease

Treatment for congenital heart disease will depend on the type and severity of the condition, although some forms of heart defects will not require any treatment. If treatment is required, it will typically include medications that make your heart work better, such as ACE inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, anticoagulants, beta-blockers, and diuretics.

Your doctor may also place an implantable heart device to control your heart rate, such as a pacemaker, or to fix an irregular heartbeat, such as an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). Another form of treatment is cardiac catheterization (also used to diagnose congenital heart disease), in which a catheter is guided to your heart and can be used to widen your arteries or repair septal defects.

In more severe cases, you may require heart valve surgery to repair or replace one or more of your heart valves. Surgery options can include either open heart surgery or minimally invasive heart surgery. In cases where the congenital heart defect is life threatening, a complete heart transplant may be the only solution.

Symptoms Of Congenital Heart Disease

Not everyone with congenital heart disease experiences symptoms, and the symptoms can vary based on age, type of heart defect, number of heart defects, and severity of the disease. However, common symptoms of congenital heart disease can include dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath, heart murmurs, heart palpitations, irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmias), swelling of the ankles, feet, or hands, and bluish fingernails, lips, and skin.

Why Choose CVG?

At CVG, our cardiologists offer extensive experience caring for patients using state-of-the-art techniques. Their compassion adds so much to your care because our doctors understand how heart issues can affect you physically and take an emotional toll. Trust is the #1 factor in the doctor/patient relationship. You can trust your CVG cardiologist with every aspect of heart care.

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Board-certified Doctors

CVG’s twenty board-certified heart doctors will guide you through your healthcare journey with the utmost compassion and individual attention. We aim to provide you with state-of-the-art cardiac care that includes the full spectrum of services, from testing to diagnosis and treatment. The doctor/patient relationship is built on trust. Through our combined efforts, we can conquer any challenge that comes our way.

Invasive therapies may also treat an abnormal heart rhythm, such as electrical cardioversion, which sends electrical impulses through your chest wall and allows normal heart rhythm to restart, or catheter ablation that disconnects the abnormal rhythm’s pathway. Suppose your doctor determines that electrical devices are the best course of action. In that case, you may be given a permanent pacemaker, an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), or biventricular (B-V) pacemakers and defibrillators.

How CVG Can Help

CVG offers multiple services that can discover an enlarged heart or conditions that will lead to it. At CVG, we perform stress tests that will observe blood flow and test for various forms of heart disease. There are three types of stress tests that we perform:

A treadmill test is a test in which you will walk on a treadmill that gets faster and steeper every 3 minutes. This will stress your heart so that our nurse or doctor can determine your heart rate and blood pressure.
An echo test is performed before and after your treadmill test to determine how well your heart pumps blood.
A nuclear stress test is a treadmill test that is prefaced by an injection of medicine that shows the flow of blood to your heart.

We also offer cardiac catheterization to diagnose and treat several heart issues. If any of these tests determine a problem, we offer treatment solutions such as atrial fibrillation testing and catheter ablation. Learn more about our services here, or schedule an appointment to talk to our doctors.

Schedule Your Appointment with a CVG Atlanta Area Cardiologist

Expertise, experience, and compassion are the pillars of CVG’s patient-centered cardiac care. Please schedule your appointment with CVG today. Call (770) 962-0399 or 678-582-8586. You may also request an appointment online. If you have an emergency, don’t contact us online; please call 911.