Blue baby Case Study
Cyanosis is a disorder which causes “bluish discoloration” to the skin, specifically around the mucus membranes or nail beds. There are two types of Cyanosis disorders, depending on where the cyanotic discoloration is occurring. For example, if the cyanotic discoloration is occurring around the nasal or oral tissue membranes, this type of cyanosis would be described as Central Cyanosis. In the same matter, if the bluish discoloration is occurring in extremities such as toes or fingers, it would be called peripheral cyanosis (acrocyanosis). Both of these types of cyanosis disorders derive from problems in hemoglobin oxygen intake, however the body reacts differently towards central cyanosis as opposed to peripheral cyanosis.
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Hemoglobin is composed of four subunits (beta/Alpha) containing a heme group which binds an iron and that iron binds to the oxygen. The blueness of the skin occurs when, rather than carrying oxygenated hemoglobin, our blood carries deoxygenated hemoglobin in increased amounts “>5 g/dL”. In this case, the baby is experiencing central cyanosis, which is abnormal and needs to be treated immediately. When the doctor attempted to give the baby oxygen via nasal cannula, it did not change the blood oxygen saturation because although the concentration of blood oxygen levels increased, there is too much deoxyhemoglobin to cause the blood oxygen saturation percent to increase back to its normal state. Cyanosis occurs either because of decrease of oxygen in the blood, or due to a congenital heart defect known …show more content…
Pulmonary stenosis (PS) - Pulmonary Stenosis causes an obstruction of blood flow from the right ventricle into the pulmonary arteries. This obstruction causes the right ventricle to have more difficulty pumping the oxygen-poor blood received from the vena cava to the lungs in order to pick up the oxygen needed. Therefore causing a decrease in exchange of oxygen in the lungs, as well as a decrease of blood volume to the lungs.
3. Overriding Aorta – Due to the alignment of the ventricular septum, and the VSD formation, the aorta is placed “directly above the aorta. Both the right and the left ventricles have access to the aorta causing an increase in outflow of blood through the aorta. Due to the pulmonary stenosis in the pulmonary arteries, the blood flow to the lungs will be obstructed causing the blood to be shunted back to the right ventricle and into the aorta; mixing the oxygenated blood with the deoxygenated blood going to the body tissues.
4. Right Ventricular hypertrophy (RVH) – In a normal heart, the left ventricle has a rather thicker wall than the right due to the fact that it has to pump oxygenated blood to the body as opposed to the right ventricle which only needs to pump deoxygenated blood to the lungs. However, Tetralogy of Fallot causes an enlargement of the right ventricular muscle due to the pulmonary stenosis in the pulmonary
Ebstein’s Anomaly is a rare congenital condition, present at birth, in which the tricuspid valve is malformed and the valve itself is not in the correct anatomic place (Mayo Clinic Staff). This anomaly affects the right side of the heart – the tricuspid valve is located too deep into the ventricle, causing a smaller and weaker right ventricle. The space above the decreased right ventricle is made up of atrial tissue and this can be referred to as right ventricle dysplasia or an atrialized right ventricle (Reynolds). Typically the tricuspid valve has three freely moving leaflets, but in Ebstein’s anomaly one or two of those leaflets get fused to the heart walls causing regurgitation. Since the heart does not work as efficiently in those who have this anomaly, the heart usually compensates and becomes enlarged. It...
One of the four defects that are specific to Tetralogy of Fallow is referred to as a Ventricular Septal Defect. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; this defect is characterized by a hole in the septum (Schumacher 2011). The ventricles are the main chambers in the heart that pump and the hole usually occurs along the wall separating the two lower chambers or ventricles of the heart. In a normal heart, the septum functions to prevent blood from merging between the left and right sides of the heart. If the defect is large it creates pulmonary congestion from the increase workload from the heart. Small defects are virtually asymptomatic and sound like a murmur upon auscultation. Many ventricular septal defects clos...
“Hypoplastic left heart syndrome accounts for 9% of all critically ill newborns with congenital cardiac disease, causing the largest number of cardiac deaths in the first year of life.(2) ” HLHS is a severe heart defect that is present at birth. HLHS combines different defects that result in an underdeveloped left side of the heart. This syndrome is one of the most challenging and difficult to manage of all of the congenital heart defects. Multiple portions on the left side of the heart are affected including the left ventricle, the mitral and aortic valve, and the ascending aorta. These structures are greatly reduced in size, or completely nonexistent causing the functionality of the left heart to be reduced, or non-functional all together.
The thickening of the muscle cells do not necessarily have to change the size of the ventricles, but can narrow the blood vessels inside the heart. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy can be grouped into two categories: obstructive HCM and non-obstructive HCM. With obstructive HCM, the septum (the wall that divides the left and right sides of the heart) becomes thickened and blocks the blood flow out of the left ventricle. Overall, HCM usually starts in the left ventricle. HCM can also cause blood to leak backward through the mitral valve causing even more problems. The walls of the ventricles can also become stiff since it cannot hold a normal amount of blood. This stiffening causes the ventricle to not relax and entirely fill with
• Jaundice. This is yellowing of the skin and eyes. In a newborn, jaundice is usually caused by a buildup of waste products in the blood due to the breakdown of red blood cells that the baby cannot get rid of fast
Dassen WRM, Kuipers H, Mihl C, et al. Cardiac remodelling: concentric versus eccentric hypertrophy in stregnth and endurance atheletes. Neth Heart J. Apr 2008; 16(4):129-133.
... as the heart, major blood vessels, and airways) toward the other side of the chest. The shift can cause the other lung to become compressed, and can affect the flow of blood returning to the heart. This situation can lead to low blood pressure, shock, and death.
Tetralogy of Fallot is a congenital heart disease which involves four different heart defects in one. The four different heart defects are a large ventricular septal defect (VSD), Pulmonary Stenosis, Right ventricular hypertrophy, and an overriding aorta. These congenital defects change the normal flow of blood thro...
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an inherited disease that affects the cardiac muscle of the heart, causing the walls of the heart to thicken and become stiff. [1] On a cellular level, the sarcomere increase in size. As a result, the cardiac muscles become abnormally thick, making it difficult for the cells to contract and the heart to pump. A genetic mutation causes the myocytes to form chaotic intersecting bundles. A pathognomonic abnormality called myocardial fiber disarray. [2,12] How the hypertrophy is distributed throughout the heart is varied. Though, in most cases, the left ventricle is always affected. [3] The heart muscle can thicken in four different patterns. The most common being asymmetrical septal hypertrophy without obstruction. Here the intraventricular septum becomes thick, but the mitral valve is not affected. Asymmetrical septal hypertrophy with obstruction causes the mitral valve to touch the septal wall during contraction. (Left ventricle outflow tract obstruction.) The obstruction of the mitral valve allows for blood to slowly flow from the left ventricle back into the left atrium (Mitral regurgitation). Symmetrical hypertrophy is the thickening of the entire left ven...
The pattern of blood flow starts in the left atrium to right atrium, then into the left ventricle and right ventricle. During its course, blood flows through the mitral and tricuspid valves. Simultaneously, the right atrium is granted blood from the veins through the superior and inferior vena cava. The job of the superior vena cava is to transport de-oxygenated blood to the right atrium. When your heart beats, the first beat represents the AV valves closing to prevent the backflow of blood into the atrium.
The circulatory system and respiratory system share a highly important relationship that is crucial to maintaining the life of an organism. In order for bodily processes to be performed, energy to be created, and homeostasis to be maintained, the exchange of oxygen from the external environment to the intracellular environment is performed by the relationship of these two systems. Starting at the heart, deoxygenated/carbon-dioxide (CO2)-rich blood is moved in through the superior and inferior vena cava into the right atrium, then into the right ventricle when the heart is relaxed. As the heart contracts, the deoxygenated blood is pumped through the pulmonary arteries to capillaries in the lungs. As the organism breathes and intakes oxygenated air, oxygen is exchanged with CO2 in the blood at the capillaries. As the organism breathes out, it expels the CO2 into the external environment. For the blood in the capillaries, it is then moved into pulmonary veins and make
Some of the blood would enter the right ventricle from where it was thought to be diverted to the pulmonary artery to nourish the lungs. In his model, air is taken up in the lungs by pulmonary veins,
The heart is a pump with four chambers made of their own special muscle called cardiac muscle. Its interwoven muscle fibers enable the heart to contract or squeeze together automatically (Colombo 7). It’s about the same size of a fist and weighs some where around two hundred fifty to three hundred fifty grams (Marieb 432). The size of the heart depends on a person’s height and size. The heart wall is enclosed in three layers: superficial epicardium, middle epicardium, and deep epicardium. It is then enclosed in a double-walled sac called the Pericardium. The terms Systole and Diastole refer respectively and literally to the contraction and relaxation periods of heart activity (Marieb 432). While the doctor is taking a patient’s blood pressure, he listens for the contractions and relaxations of the heart. He also listens for them to make sure that they are going in a single rhythm, to make sure that there are no arrhythmias or complications. The heart muscle does not depend on the nervous system. If the nervous s...
In the case study it is the left lung that is in distress, and as the pressure increases within the left lung it can cause an impaired venus return to the right atrium (Daley, 2014). The increased pressure can eventually affect the right lung as the pressure builds in the left side and causes mediastinal shift which increases pressure on the right lung, which decreases the patients ability to breath, and diffuse the bodies tissues appropriately. The increase in pressure on the left side where the original traum... ... middle of paper ... ... 14, January 29).