Will patent ductus arteriosus be life-threatening if it becomes serious?

Will patent ductus arteriosus affect life if it becomes serious? Patent ductus arteriosus is a type of congenital heart disease. When the disease occurs, it will seriously affect the life of the child and cause great harm to their health. So will patent ductus arteriosus affect life if it becomes serious?

1. Symptoms

It varies with the severity of the disease. Mild cases are asymptomatic, while severe cases have fatigue, palpitations after exertion, shortness of breath, chest tightness, cough, hemoptysis, etc. A few have stunted development. Some may develop infective endarteritis. Untreated patients may develop heart failure, significant pulmonary hypertension with cyanosis, rupture and bleeding of the pulmonary artery or patent ductus arteriosus, etc. in the late stage.

2. Physical signs

1. Murmurs, occupying almost the entire systolic and diastolic periods, are loudest at the end of systolic period and are accompanied by tremors, and spread to the left upper chest and back. In some patients, the loudest murmur may be located between the first and third intercostal spaces. In infants, patients with pulmonary hypertension or concurrent congestive heart failure, due to changes in the pressure gradient between the aorta and the pulmonary artery, there may be no continuous murmurs, but only systolic murmurs or no significant murmurs.

2. Patients with a large shunt volume may have enlarged cardiac dullness boundaries, increased apical beats, diastolic murmurs in the apical area (relative mitral stenosis), increased or split second heart sounds in the pulmonary valve area (but often masked by murmurs and difficult to hear), and peripheral circulation signs similar to aortic regurgitation, including widened pulse pressure, water-rushing pulse, capillary pulsations, and peripheral arterial gunshot sounds.

From the above symptoms of patent ductus arteriosus, it can be seen that this disease is very serious. If not treated in time, it may affect life. However, as long as surgical treatment is performed in time, the disease will be cured.