When one or more heart defects are found at birth, it is called a congenital heart defect.
When one or more abnormalities of the heart structure are found at birth, this is called a congenital (congenital) heart defect. About 8 out of 1,000 babies are born with some form of heart defect. In the past, being born with a heart defect meant that you did not have long to live, but medical advances mean that there is now a chance of a longer life expectancy in such cases.
Two of the best known congenital abnormalities are ventricular septal defect (VSD) and atrial septal defect (ASD). Both have a hole in the bulkhead between the left and right sides of the heart, which contains oxygenated and deoxygenated blood respectively.
A VSD is a hole in the septum (spartum) between the left and right ventricles (the lower cavities). An ASD is a hole in the septum between the left and right atria (atria, the upper cavities). In both cases, oxygenated blood seeps from the left into the right side of the heart. This reduces the amount of oxygen circulating in the blood, overloading the heart and lungs.
PFO (patent foramen ovale) is a form of ASD. The oval opening (foramen ovale) is a natural opening between the right and left atria in the heart of the fetus. In normal health, the opening closes as soon as the baby begins to breathe. If not, the opening is permeable. A PFO does not always have to cause health problems.
Much less common, but often more serious, is a PDA (patent ductus arteriosus). The ductus arteriosus is a normal structure in the circulatory system of the fetus, which allows blood to flow past the lungs, because the lungs are not yet needed for the fetus to breathe during pregnancy. In normal cases, this canal closes after birth. When the canal does not close after birth, blood flows from the aorta into the pulmonary artery. If the hole exceeds a certain size, it may heart failure cause.
Constricted or trapped blood vessels are also heart defects. Narrowing of the aorta is a common vascular abnormality (medical name: coarctation of the aorta). A narrowed or pinched aorta makes the heart work harder to pump blood to the body. Ultimately, the overload causes damage to both the heart and the aorta.