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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.
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.
If the ductus arteriosus fails to close after birth, a condition known as patent ductus arteriosus can develop. This is a fairly common birth defect. This is a fairly common birth defect. Sufferers may have operations that leave them with no ligamentum arteriosum.
Because the aorta has lower pressure than the pulmonary artery, most of the blood flows across the ductus arteriosus away from the lungs. [1] Once the blood goes through the ductus arteriosus, it mixes with the blood from the aorta. This results in mixed blood oxygen saturation that supplies most of the structures of the lower half of the fetal ...
It is one of two fetal cardiac shunts, the other being the ductus arteriosus (which allows blood that still escapes to the right ventricle to bypass the pulmonary circulation). Another similar adaptation in the fetus is the ductus venosus. In most individuals, the foramen ovale closes at birth. It later forms the fossa ovalis.
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.
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If that ductus arteriosus doesn’t close off, then the baby is left with a patent ductus arteriosus, and this condition accounts for about 10% of all congenital heart defects, of which the vast majority, about 90%, are isolated heart defects, meaning there aren’t any additional congenital defects.