A congenital heart defect (CHD) is a defect in the structure of the heart and great vessels which is present at birth. Many types of heart defects exist, most of which either obstruct blood flow in the heart or vessels near it, or cause blood to flow through the heart in an abnormal pattern. Other defects, such as long QT syndrome, affect the heart's rhythm. Heart defects are among the most common birth defects and are the leading cause of birth defect-related deaths. Approximately 9 people in 1000 are born with a congenital heart defect. Many defects don't need treatment, but some complex congenital heart defects require medication or surgery.
Read more about Congenital Heart Defect: Signs and Symptoms, Embryology, Causes, Classification, Diagnosis, Treatment
Famous quotes containing the words congenital, heart and/or defect:
“A society in which adults are estranged from the world of children, and often from their own childhood, tends to hear children’s speech only as a foreign language, or as a lie.... Children have been treated ... as congenital fibbers, fakers and fantasisers.”
—Beatrix Campbell (b. 1947)
“Royalty is a government in which the attention of the nation is concentrated on one person doing interesting actions. A Republic is a government in which that attention is divided between many, who are all doing uninteresting actions. Accordingly, so long as the human heart is strong and the human reason weak, Royalty will be strong because it appeals to diffused feeling, and Republics weak because they appeal to the understanding.”
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“For such an advanced civilization as ours to be without images that are adequate to it is as serious a defect as being without memory.”
—Werner Herzog (b. 1942)