title: Congestive heart failure during early infancy in patients with ventricular septal defect relative to early closure.
abstract: The hemodynamic features of 44 patients requiring surgical closure of a ventricular septal defect (VSD) during early infancy were evaluated. The VSD was closed within the first 6 months of life in 29 patients (group A) and during the second 6 months in 15 patients (group B). The left-to-right (L-R) shunts were significantly greater in group A than in group B, although in all patients they were more than 50%. In contrast, the left ventricular end-diastolic volume was significantly greater in group B than in group A, whereas the right ventricular end-diastolic volume was greater in group A; the difference was not statistically significant. The step-up in blood oxygen saturation in the lower right atrium, which was significantly more in group A, indicated the L-R shunt across the patent foramen ovale (PFO). The L-R shunt across the VSD during diastole was also detected in all patients angiographically. With early infantile VSD, the larger the L-R shunt the greater was the likelihood of early surgery. Right ventricular volume overload caused by the L-R shunt across a PFO as well as through the VSD during diastole is a useful indicator of a large shunt in infants with VSD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku Fukuoka 812, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ueda
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fukushige
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ueda
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006345:Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D013318:Stroke Volume; D013997:Time Factors; D016276:Ventricular Function