What Causes Holes in the Heart?
Mothers of children born with an atrial septal
defect (ASD), a ventricular septal defect (VSD), or another type of heart
defect often think that they did something wrong during the pregnancy to cause
the problem. However, most of the time, doctors don't know why these
congenital
heart defects develop.
Heredity may play a role in some heart defects. For
example, a parent who has a congenital heart defect is slightly more likely
than other people to have a child with the problem. In very rare cases, more
than one child in a family is born with a heart defect. Children with genetic
defects often have congenital heart defects. An example of this is Down
syndromehalf of all babies with Down syndrome have congenital heart
defects.
Scientists continue to search for the causes of
congenital heart defects. |