It is the defect in septum, situated between 2 atrias.
Types of ASD
Ostium secundum atrial septal defect (OS-ASD) is the most common type of ASD. Other types of ASDs are Ostium primum defect, coronary sinus defect, sinus venosus type of defect in atrial septum.
Presentation
Majority of children are asymptomatic. As majority is asymptomatic, ASD can be easily missed in early childhood. On careful examining the child, we can hear some abnormal sound in left upper chest area.
DIAGNOSIS OF ASD
ASD can be suspected clinically and diagnostic modalities for ASD are ECG, chest X-ray but confirmatory test is by doing echocardiography (ECHO) from chest of the child.
ECHO is a non-invasive test and it is not painful to the child. This test generally takes 5-10 minutes for completion.
In older children, sometimes another modality of ECHO is required names as transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) that needs to be done by putting an echo probe through the food pipe.
Dr Gaurav Agrawal is a Pediatric Cardiologist (Child and Fetal heart Specialist). Dr Agrawal is a pediatrician who has specialized training in the treatment of various child heart related problems (neonates to 18 years of age). He is also having a vast experience in fetal echocardiography.
He is one of the very few pediatricians in India who practices pediatric cardiology exclusively. Cardiac problems in children are common in children, sometimes life threating and often not diagnosed properly. Early diagnosis and timely treatment is very important. Areas of specific interest include child echocardiography including fetal echocardiography, diagnostic and therapeutic cardiac catheterization (pediatric cardiac holes closure by device, opening of obstructed cardiac valves by balloons etc).