What are the self-healing problems of simple precordial disease?

  In China, the incidence of congenital heart disease (later referred to as congenital heart disease) in infants and children is 6-8 per 1,000, with about 100,000 cases of congenital heart disease born each year. Among these cases, four types of diseases such as atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, arteriovenous ductus arteriosus, and tetralogy of Fallot account for the majority of the first three types of diseases are relatively simple congenital heart diseases, with good surgical (or interventional) results, and children are generally no different from normal people after correction. In addition to the impossibility of self-healing in tetralogy of Fallot, the other three types of diseases have a certain percentage of children with the possibility of self-healing, without the need for any drug and surgical intervention.  It is probably the greatest joy for parents to see their babies with prediabetes heal on their own, but we also need to take an objective and scientific view of the self-healing of these simple prediabetes diseases.  Although atrial defects, ventricular defects and patent ductus arteriosus are simple types of pediatric precardiac disease, they are also classified in detail. Atrial defects can generally be divided into five types: foramen ovale, foramen ovale, coronary sinus, venous sinus and common atrium; ventricular defects can be divided into perimembranous (also known as subventricular), funicular (also known as supraventricular, inferior stem, pulmonary valve, etc.), myocardial, atrioventricular access (also known as postseptal), and mixed; there are also five types of patent ductus arteriosus: tubular, window, funnel, dumbbell, and aneurysmal. These classifications are difficult for the baby’s family to understand, but they can provide some cursory understanding of the baby’s precordial disease based on this.  Atrial septal defects that are likely to heal spontaneously: foramen ovale, foramen ovale (less than 5 mm in diameter).  Possible self-healing septal defects: perimembranous (less than 5 mm in diameter), myocardial (less than 5 mm in diameter).  Arteriovenous ductus arteriosus with possible self-healing: tubular type (less than 4 mm in diameter), funnel type (less than 4 mm in diameter), and dumbbell type (less than 4 mm in diameter).  In babies within the first month of life, the presence of an atrial septal defect (less than 4 mm in diameter) or/and ductus arteriosus (less than 3 mm in diameter) on ultrasound is usually a sign that the fetal circulation has not closed in time and will most likely close in the subsequent period, and such cases have the greatest chance of spontaneous healing. If a ventricular septal defect is present, it is definitely an anomaly. If the defect is small and its location is consistent with the above-mentioned indicators of self-healing, a repeat cardiac ultrasound at three months and at half a year of age cannot exclude its possible self-healing. If the defect is large, the baby will be prone to pneumonia, heart failure, growth retardation, etc. in the future, and should be followed up by early visits to specialized hospitals.  It is important to note that for other simple precordial diseases that are not among the types that can heal spontaneously, the baby’s family should not take a chance and delay, expecting a miracle to happen. In the case of pulmonary subvalvular ventricular septal defect, for example, the chance of self-healing is very small, and the long-term existence of this type of preconditioning will affect the nearby aortic valve, and the aortic noncoronary valve will be disassembled into the ventricular septal defect, which may even lead to serious complications such as aortic insufficiency if the time is longer, so this type of ventricular defect should be treated with surgery as soon as it is detected.  For simple precordial diseases that can heal spontaneously, we should also look at them differently. The chances of reopening atrial septal defects and patent ductus arteriosus once they heal spontaneously are very low, which is closely related to their own anatomical structure. In the case of periventricular septal defects that have the potential to heal spontaneously, if the diameter of the defect is large, it is often surrounded by crater-like fibrous growths or paravalvular obscuration of the tricuspid valve, a condition that we call pseudoventricular septal tumor formation. In the ultrasound report of the heart, we often see the terminology: “ventricular defect base diameter is 8 mm, pseudoseptal tumor formation, shunt opening is 3 mm”, which means that the diameter of the ventricular defect itself is 8 mm, but due to the obstruction of the fibrous tissue and tricuspid valve, the left-to-right shunt blood is only 3 mm wide. To some extent, pseudoseptal tumor formation is an important marker of self-healing ventricular septum, but it is not a very reliable indicator. Even if the pseudoseptal tumor completely covers the ventricular septum and no shunt exists, it does not exclude the possibility that the septal tumor will rupture and the ventricular septum will reopen in the future under some special circumstances. On the other hand, the formation of a pseudoseptal tumor depends on the involvement of the tricuspid valve, and if too much tricuspid valve tissue is involved in the formation of a septal tumor, it may cause adverse complications such as tricuspid regurgitation.  All in all, if a baby is found to have congenital heart disease, he or she should consult a relevant physician at a professional hospital as early as possible to avoid missing the best treatment opportunity. We should take a scientific view on the self-healing of simple congenital heart disease and make our babies grow up healthier and stronger under the guidance of professional physicians.