What is Kawasaki disease Kawasaki disease is a condition where the body develops an inflammation of the small and medium sized arteries of the bodies. To explain what an inflammation is, it is fair to compare it to a burn, where the area affected becomes tender, swollen, red and hot. This inflammation causes a weakening…
What is a heart palpitation? Heart palpitation is the feeling a person has that the heart is beating fast or irregularly. Sometimes children report a missing heart beat feeling (lasting for only a second or a few seconds) or the feeling that the heart is beating faster (and sometimes stronger) than it should in conditions…
What is bicuspid aortic valve? A bicuspid aortic valve is the most common form of congenital heart disease (CHD) and is thought to affect 1 to 2 in a 100 people. It consists in an anomaly of the aortic valve, which represents the outlet valve from the left sided pumping chamber (the left ventricle). The…
Pulmonary stenosis is a narrowing of the pulmonary valve. This means the right ventricle has to work harder to pump blue blood into the pulmonary artery and so to the lungs to pick up oxygen. Pulmonary valve stenosis: symptoms, causes and diagnosis What is a pulmonary valve stenosis? It is a condition where the pulmonary…
Tetralogy of Fallot: symptoms, causes, treatment and repair Tetralogy of Fallot is a condition where there is a narrowing in the blood flow from the right ventricle to the lungs, as a consequence of thick muscle underneath the pulmonary valve and a small pulmonary valve. There is also a VSD (hole between the pumping chambers)…
What are the causes of chest pain in children and teenagers? Chest pain is very common in children and adolescents and represents a large part of a paediatric cardiologist’s workload. As the chest is a very busy area there are many reasons for pain occurring in the chest. The most common type of chest pain…