Signs and Symptoms of Congenital Heart Disease

Congenital heart disease occurs when the structures of the heart or blood vessels are defective or malformed. This defect happens while a fetus is growing in the uterus, but symptoms may not appear until adulthood. Congenital heart disease affects about 500,000 people in the United States.

Types

• Common types of congenital heart disease include heart muscle abnormalities, heart wall defects and heart valve defects, which inhibit or prevent forward blood flow or leaky valves which allow blood to leak backward.

Causes

• Causes of congenital heart disease could include alcohol or drug use during pregnancy, medical conditions such as Down's syndrome, and in rare cases, heredity.

Adult Symptoms

• Symptoms of congenital heart disease in adults include shortness of breath and a limited ability to exercise. Some adults may not have symptoms.

Child Symptoms

• Symptoms of congenital heart disease in children include fast breathing, poor feeding and weight gain, recurrent lung infections and an inability to exercise.

Treatment

• Treatment of congenital heart disease is based on the severity of the disease and may not require treatment if the defect is very mild. More serious cases are treated with surgery or some type of interventional procedure in an attempt to repair the problem.