Heart of the matter

It's OK, it's a C.S.I. Miami we've already seen so I'm back early.

So we arrived this morning at 9:00AM for cares and Amy had had a really good night. While her nappy was off they did a quick weigh-in as you can see from the previous post, and afterwards Anna had some Kangaroo Care (skin on skin) with Amy for about an hour and a half. Afterwards the doctors did their rounds and amazingly this was the first time I'd seen them. They ran through the usual routine checks until one of them mentioned 'hearing the heart mumour'. As we didn't know if this was good or bad but suspected the latter, we thought we'd ask. Expecting the answer to be quick and simple, I got more than I bargained for...

PATENT DUCTUS ARTERIOSUS (PDA)


The ductus arteriosus is a normal fetal structure, allowing blood to bypass circulation to the lungs. Since the fetus does not use his/her lungs (oxygen is provided through the mother’s placenta), flow from the right ventricle needs an outlet. The ductus provides this, shunting flow from the left pulmonary artery to the aorta just beyond the origin of the artery to the left subclavian artery. The high levels of oxygen which it is exposed to after birth causes it to close in most cases within 24 hours. When it doesn’t close, it is termed a Patent Ductus Arteriosus and this is very common in Premature babies and can be heard as a 'murmur' using a standard stethoscope.

The defect often corrects itself within several months of birth, but may require infusion of chemicals, the placement of "plugs" via catheters, or surgical closure. Everybody is of the opinion right now that this is perfectly normal for a 'premmie' and that it can be controlled for now by giving her less fluids. She's now on 140ml of Anna's milk per day (quite a lot I thought) and this is boosted by a fortifier.

For more information on PDA and a neat diagram of how it all works, Click here