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The ductus arteriosus, also called the ductus Botalli, named after the Italian physiologist Leonardo Botallo, is a blood vessel in the developing fetus connecting the trunk of the pulmonary artery to the proximal descending aorta. It allows most of the blood from the right ventricle to bypass the fetus's fluid-filled non-functioning lungs.
The fetal heart contains two upper atria and two lower ventricles. It also contains two additional structures, the foramen ovale and the ductus arteriosus, that function as shunts for oxygenated blood. [2] The function of these shunts is to bypass the lungs and maintain proper circulation to
During fetal development, the ductus arteriosus is kept open by high levels of a vasodilator prostaglandin E2 which is made by the placenta and by the ductus arteriosus itself. At birth a bunch of things change, though—oxygen levels in the blood go up dramatically and the lungs become the main source of oxygenated blood.
The ductus arteriosus connects at a junction point that has a low pressure zone (commonly called Bernoulli's principle) created by the inferior curvature (inner radius) of the artery. This low pressure region allows the artery to receive ( siphon ) the blood flow from the pulmonary artery which is under a higher pressure.
As the fetal lungs are non-functional at this time, the blood bypasses them through two cardiac shunts. The first is the foramen ovale (the valve present between them called eustachian valve) which shunts blood from the right atrium to the left atrium. The second is the ductus arteriosus which shunts blood from the pulmonary artery (which ...
Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a medical condition in which the ductus arteriosus fails to close after birth: this allows a portion of oxygenated blood from the left heart to flow back to the lungs from the aorta, which has a higher blood pressure, to the pulmonary artery, which has a lower blood pressure.
Almost immediately after the infant is born, the foramen ovale and ductus arteriosus close. The major changes that are made by the body occur at the first breath (in the case of heart and lung functions) and up to weeks after birth (such as the liver's enzyme synthesis). The foramen ovale becomes the fossa ovalis as the foramen closes while ...
The truncus arteriosus splits into the ascending aorta and the pulmonary trunk. The bulbus cordis forms part of the ventricles. The sinus venosus connects to the fetal circulation. The heart tube elongates on the right side, looping and becoming the first visual sign of left-right asymmetry of the body.