RWJUH Physicians to Present Live Panel Discussion on Pediatric Atrial Septal Defect

Monday, December 11, 2006

New Brunswick, NJ – Each year, approximately 35,000 children are born with congenital heart defects. The heart program at The Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital offers the most comprehensive cardiovascular program for New Jersey’s children. Families no longer need to travel out of state to receive the very best children’s care.

Experts will discuss the repair of an atrial septal defect during a live online panel discussion on Tuesday, December 12, at 1:00 p.m. A pediatric cardiac catheterization procedure will be featured. (Click here to visit the online panel discussion Web site.)

An atrial septal defect (ASD) is an opening in the atrial septum, or dividing wall between the two upper chambers of the heart known as the right and left atria. It is a congenital heart defect. As the fetus is growing, something occurs to affect heart development during the first eight weeks of pregnancy, resulting in an ASD.

Normally, oxygen-poor (blue) blood returns to the right atrium from the body, travels to the right ventricle, then is pumped into the lungs where it receives oxygen. Oxygen-rich (red) blood returns to the left atrium from the lungs, passes into the left ventricle, and then is pumped out to the body through the aorta. An ASD allows oxygen-rich blood to pass from the left atrium, through the opening in the septum, and then mix with oxygen-poor blood in the right atrium.

There are three major types of atrial septal defects: secundum, primum and sinus venosus. The most common ASD is the secundum, affecting 80 percent of people with this defect. It is caused when a part of the atrial septum fails to close completely while the heart is developing. This causes an opening to develop between the atria. The primum ASD is part of the atrioventricular canal defects, and is often found at a split in the leaflet of the valve. The sinus venosus ASD occurs at the superior vena cava and right atrium junction. In this defect, one or more of the pulmonary veins enter the right atrium instead of correctly entering the left atrium.

ASDs can cause lung problems if not repaired. When blood passes through the ASD from the left atrium to the right atrium, a larger volume of blood than normal must be handled by the right side of the heart. Extra blood then passes through the pulmonary artery into the lungs, causing higher pressure than normal in the blood vessels in the lungs. The lungs are able to cope with this extra pressure for a while, depending on how high it is, but after a while, the blood vessels in the lungs become diseased by the extra pressure.

During the featured pediatric catheterization procedure, the child is sedated and a small catheter is inserted into a blood vessel in the groin and guided to the inside of the heart. Once inside the heart, the cardiologist passes a device through the catheter and into the open ASD to prevent blood from flowing through it.

Attention members of the media: For more information on this release, please contact the Department of Public Relations (732) 937-8521.

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