Ventricular Septal Defect
In this paper I will be discussing about heart murmurs. There are different kinds of heart murmurs but I will mainly be discussing about a particular type of heart murmur known as Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) .My reason for wanting to do research on this particular area is because I was born with this particular heart murmur.
Heart murmurs are irregular heart sounds which are formed as a result of unstable blood flow, which is enough to generate easy to hear noise. Some signs and symptoms of heart murmurs would be swelling, shortness of breath, enlarged liver, enlarged neck veins, poor appetite and failure to grow normally(infants), weight gain, heavy sweating with minimal or no effort, chest pain, dizziness , or fainting. There are innocent heart murmurs and abnormal heart murmurs. Innocent murmurs can be caused when blood flows more quickly through the heart like when exercising for example. Other situations that can trigger blood to flow more quickly through your heart that might result in an innocent murmur could be pregnancy, fever, anemia(when not enough red blood cells to carry enough oxygen to your body tissue) , hyperthyroidism ( when there is too much thyroid hormone in your body) , and physical exertion. The most common cause of abnormal murmurs in children is congenital heart disease(infants born with structural defects in the heart). The most common defects would include holes in the heart, valve abnormalities, rheumatic fever, endocarditis, and valve calcification. Innocent heart murmurs do not need treatment because the heart is normal. However abnormal heart murmurs most of the time does not need treatment at first. A doctor will probably want to keep an eye on the condition over time. If you do need treatment it depends on which heart problem is causing your murmurs and may involve medicine or surgery. Which medicine your doctor decides to give you depends on the particular heart problem you have. Some of the...
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