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A pulmonary shunt is the passage of deoxygenated blood from the right side of the heart to the left without participation in gas exchange in the pulmonary capillaries. It is a pathological condition that results when the alveoli of parts of the lungs are perfused with blood as normal, but ventilation (the supply of air) fails to supply the perfused region.
An uncorrected left-to-right shunt can progress to a right-to-left shunt; this process is termed Eisenmenger syndrome. [3] This is seen in Ventricular septal defect, Atrial septal defect, and patent ductus arteriosus, and can manifest as late as adult life. This switch in blood flow direction is precipitated by pulmonary hypertension due to ...
It may be described as right-left, left-right or bidirectional, or as systemic-to-pulmonary or pulmonary-to-systemic. The direction may be controlled by left and/or right heart pressure, a biological or artificial heart valve or both. The presence of a shunt may also affect left and/or right heart pressure either beneficially or detrimentally.
It is caused by structural defects of the heart such as right-to-left or bidirectional shunting, malposition of the great arteries, or any condition which increases pulmonary vascular resistance. The result may be the development of collateral circulation.
If left untreated, the disease may progress from left-to-right shunt (acyanotic heart) to right-to-left shunt (cyanotic heart), called Eisenmenger's syndrome. Pulmonary hypertension is a potential long-term outcome, which may require a heart and/or lung transplant. Another complication of PDA is intraventricular hemorrhage. [citation needed]
However, it can also be used to detect other forms of right-to-left shunts including pulmonary arteriovenous malformations because it too needs agitated saline/contrast injected, but rather than imaging the heart, observes if any microemboli appear in the middle cerebral artery, an artery or the brain, following a valsalva maneuver. [7]
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, after birth, carries blood from the right side of the heart to the lungs) to the descending aorta.
A pulmonary-to-systemic shunt is a cardiac shunt which allows, or is designed to cause, blood to flow from the pulmonary circulation to the systemic circulation. [1] [2] This occurs when: there is a passage between two or more of the great vessels; and, pulmonic pressure is higher than systemic pressure and/or the shunt has a one-way valvular ...