Patent ductus arteriosus

Common card · No. 279024

Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a medical condition in which the ductus arteriosus fails to close after birth: this allows a portion of oxygenated blood from the left heart to flow back to the lungs from the aorta, which has a higher blood pressure, to the pulmonary artery, which has a lower blood pressure. Symptoms are uncommon at birth and shortly thereafter, but later in the first year of life there is often the onset of an increased work of breathing and failure to gain weight at a normal rate. With time, an uncorrected PDA usually leads to pulmonary hypertension followed by right-sided heart failure. The ductus arteriosus is a fetal blood vessel that normally closes soon after birth. This closure is caused by vessel constriction immediately after birth as circulation changes occur, followed by the occlusion of the vessel's lumen in the following days. In a PDA, the vessel does not close, but remains patent (open), resulting in an abnormal transmission of blood from the aorta to the...

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