Children's heart diseases are dangerous states which sometimes threaten the child's life. Not always pathology is detected at a stage of pregnancy or in maternity hospital, the disease can be shown not at once. It is important to parents and pediatricians to reveal in due time dangerous symptoms and not to postpone with treatment.
Risk groups
Unfortunately, any child is not insured from congenital heart disease. Especially attentively it is necessary to treat children from risk groups, namely:
- premature;
- with chromosomal anomalies;
- multiple malformations of other bodies;
- having relatives with heart diseases;
- which mother bore the child in a bad ecological situation, was affected by medicines, tobacco, alcohol, infections, had abortions and stillborn children earlier.
The first symptoms of heart disease
It is very difficult to define some cardiac pathologies at babies therefore even congenital defects can remain unnoticed at discharge of the baby from delivery room.
Over time mother can notice that the kid to worry at a lactation, sucks sluggishly and often belches. As a result, badly puts on weight. The baby can have excitement attacks, he often has catarrhal diseases. Already one it has to cause concern in parents and the children's doctor as except other diseases, at such child problems with a cardiovascular system are not excluded.
Usually at heart disease at children also other symptoms are shown. All of them - a reason for the address to the cardiologist. What has to guard you:
- the face, feet, fingers of the child turn pale or become blue;
- around heart the vybukhaniye is observed;
- extremities swell;
- the baby shouts for no apparent reason, at the same time cold sweat can appear;
- short wind is observed;
- heartbeat urezhenny or speeded up.
Children are more senior will be able to tell adults about the state, for example, pains in heart and the right podreberye, short wind and problems of heartbeat at rise on a ladder, run and other physical exercises. Can point lack of appetite, bad immunity, faints, dizzinesses and headaches to heart disease.
Noise in heart
Sometimes cardiac pathologies so carefully mask that you can not notice at the kid of the symptoms described above. The defect will be suspected by the attentive children's doctor, having heard at medical examination noise in heart – whistle, a scratch, some other specific sounds which are created at current a shelter through heart valves.
Similar noise not always signal about a disease and do not demand the emergency therapy. Functional specific tones of heart sometimes pass with age. If warm noise are followed by other disturbing symptoms, or the pediatrician heard rough pathological sounds (so-called organic noise), exact diagnostics of warm violations will be required.
According to medical statistics, in half of cases the specific sounds when listening heartbeat speak about small defects. They are not threat for life and sometimes even a reason for special treatment, however the child anyway will be registered at the cardiologist.
What can be heart disease
Unfortunately, every year physicians diagnose more and more congenital cardiac diseases for children, at the same time defects have various modifications. Scientists declare about one hundred types of a disease existence. Distinguish three main groups.
- Defects of white type, one of which manifestations – pallor of skin. In this case there are aortal damages, partition pathologies, blood of an arterial blood-groove is thrown out venous.
- Defects of blue type are shown by cyanosis of integuments. Cardiologists can diagnose various pathologies, for example, shift of an aorta and artery, defect of a partition between ventricles, narrowing of vessels, etc.
- Defects with blocking. It is group of diseases which cause – the complicated outflow of blood from heart ventricles.
The expert can find at the child simple heart disease when any one damage, or difficult, with the combined deformation of valves and openings is found. If the whole bouquet of violations takes place, it is about the combined defect.
Thanks to regular medical examinations, congenital heart diseases can be diagnosed for children in due time and to considerably improve quality of life of the patient, to slow down development of a disease. However parents have to be always attentive to the child: the defect can't be shown months and even years. Besides, to be not only congenital, but also acquired.
The acquired heart diseases
Pathological changes in work of a children's organism can cause maladjustment in work of heart and vessels. The main reasons of the children's acquired defects experts call:
- thorax injuries;
- infectious damage of heart;
- diseases of connecting fabric;
- sepsis;
Children are more senior than 10 years most often receive warm defects after the postponed rheumatism. Defects of warm walls quite often are caused by the bacterial infections characteristic of children's age. Usual pathogens - staphylococcus, streptococci, enterokokk. More rare – other bacteria, fungi and viruses.
Diagnosis of heart disease
Ultrasound examination (ultrasonography) of heart – the main method of diagnostics of warm defect. Procedures of electrocardiography (ECG) and an echocardiography (KG ECHO) help the doctor to see structural departments of body, to find concrete pathologies. Besides, a chest X-ray helps to draw conclusions on current state of heart.
Undergoes the ultrasonography procedure of heart within obligatory medical examination both the pregnant woman, and the baby soon after the birth. However, kind of carefully the doctor did not observe pregnancy, he can not diagnose congenital pathologies because of features of a blood-groove of future child in time. The cardiogram of the baby can also not show any pathological changes.
At the first suspicion on defect the parents have to, without postponing, to write down the child on consultation to children's narrow experts – the cardiologist and the heart surgeon. It is recommended to make the ECG and EHOKG in the large center of cardiovascular surgery where experts with wide experience of researches most precisely diagnose a disease.
What to do if the child has a heart disease?
Therapy of cardiac pathology is always strictly individual. When choosing a method of treatment of children's warm defect the doctors will consider age and the general condition of the little patient. In different cases it is appointed:
- conservative therapy. Will prescribe the child a healthy diet, protein-rich, will limit in the salt use. The physiotherapy exercises for a training of a cardiac muscle are obligatory. Medicines are in case of need appointed.
- Surgical treatment. If for correction of warm defect the operation is shown, it is necessary to make it in time which is precisely fixed by the heart surgeon. In most cases surgical intervention helps children to correct defect and even completely to recover.
At the acquired defects it is important to remember etiologies and it is obligatory to carry out prevention of new diseases. For example, to warn rheumatic attacks if pathology was caused by rheumatism; to treat completely infectious diseases and its complications.
The healthy lifestyle, exact implementation of medical recommendations and, of course, attention and love of parents, absence of stresses surely will help the child to cope with an illness.