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Ventricular septal defect - Symptom

Alternative Names

VSD; Interventricular septal defect

Symptoms:

Patients with ventricular septal defects may not have symptoms.

The most common symptoms, however, include:

Shortness of breath
Fast breathing
Hard breathing
Paleness
Failure to gain weight
Fast heart rate
Pounding heart
Sweating while feeding
Frequent respiratory infections

Signs and tests:

Listening with a stethoscope usually reveals a heart murmur (the sound of the blood crossing the hole). The loudness of the murmur is related to the size of the defect and amount of blood crossing the defect.

Tests may include:

Chest x-ray -- looks to see if there is a large heart with fluid in the lungs
ECG -- shows signs of an enlarged left ventricle
Echocardiogram -- used to make a definite diagnosis
Cardiac catheterization (rarely needed, unless there are concerns of high blood pressure in the lungs, in which case surgery to close the defect is generally not recommended)
MRI of the heart -- used to find out how much blood is getting to the lungs

Heart, section through the middle

Heart, front view

Ventricular septal defect

Reviewed last on: 12/10/2007
David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.; and Mark A Fogel, MD, FACC, FAAP, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Radiology, Director of Cardiac MR, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

References

Zipes DP, Libby P, Bonow RO, Braunwald E, eds. Braunwald's Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine, 8th ed. St. Louis, Mo; WB Saunders; 2007.

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