Are congenital heart defects the most common type of birth defects?
Dr. Jack Rychik: Heart disease can come in different flavors, if you will. The most common that we’re familiar with is the older person who acquires problems with the vessels that deliver blood to the heart for coronary arteries. It turns out that there are a number of differences in how the heart is built and how the heart is formed – that’s referred to as congenital heart disease. Of all the different birth defects that are possible in the human, congenital heart disease is the most common type of birth defect. How common is it? Dr. Rychik: It occurs in about one percent of the population, if you include all the varieties of the different types that can exist. Which birth defect was affecting your patient, Maggie Kelly? Dr. Rychik: Maggie Kelly is a little girl who was diagnosed before birth with a difference in the way the pulmonary valve was formed and in how the right side of the heart was formed. What kind of a problem would those differences cause? Dr. Rychik: The heart is essen
