This leads to disrupted airflow, causing symptoms like crusting, nosebleeds, nasal obstruction, a whistling sound, and potentially a foul odor.

• Min June and Bram

There are two types of valve defects.

Valve Stenosis: The valve opening becomes narrowed or stiff, preventing it from opening fully. This restricts the flow of blood out of the heart chambers and forces the heart to pump harder.

Valve Regurgitation (or Leakage): The valve doesn't close completely, allowing blood to flow backward into the chamber it came from. This also causes the heart to work harder and can lead to a volume overload in the heart.

Consequences depend on severity: mild defects may cause no symptoms, but more serious ones can lead to breathlessness, fatigue, swelling, irregular heartbeat, or eventually heart failure if untreated.

-amelie

Atrial septal defects:

An opening in the interatrial septum, the wall between the heart's atria.

Ventricular septal defect:

A hole in the interventricular septum, the wall separating the heart's ventricles

Most septal defects are present at birth. It causes heart failure, shortness of breath, and poor weight gain, depending on the size of the defect and how much blood leaks through it.

A septal defect is a hole in the barrier which separates the heart{s chambers. The septum prevents oxygen rich and poor blood from mixing and the existence of a defect would cause inter-chamber blood flow leading to circulatory problems.

2 Types of Defects

Atrial

Hole between atria. Causes extra blood to flow into right atrium and ventricle, stressing the lungs. Into the right atrium because high pressure to low pressure. This stresses the lungs.

Ventricular

Hole in the wall between two ventricles. This is more common and blood flows from the left into the right due to pressure so the heart and lungs have to work harder.

Bonus 3

Atrioventricular.

Larger and more complex involving all 4 chambers and is often seen in babies with genetic conditions such as down syndrome.

Causes - Congenital (At birth, developed in fetus during heart formation), Genetic (Family history or conditions), Environmental (Maternal smoking, alcohol, drug use or illness during pregnancy)

Surgery can be done to close the hole. There is also medication to reduce the strain on heart and lungs but small defects can even close by themselves.

Lisa

Valve defects occur when the valves of the heart don't function properly. This could lead to several symptoms including:

Stenosis: This is when the valves of the heart are too stiff and they don't open properly. This could lead to a narrower opening, which makes it harder for blood to pass through. Symptoms often include fatigue, chest pains, dizziness and fainting, as well as swelling in the feet and ankles.

Regurgitation: This is a defect where the valves in the heart don't close properly. This leads to blood in the heart being able to flow backwards and end up in the previous chamber. Symptoms include heart palpitations, fatigue and shortness of breath.

Atresia: This happens when the valves in the heart do not form properly during birth, leading to a solid sheet of tissue where the valves should be. This can lead to breathing difficulties, fatigue, and heart failure in newborns.

• The blood flow is disrupted in 2 ways, either regurgitation (backward leakage) or stenosis (narrowing)

• Regurgitation is when the valve doesn't close properly, so the blood leaks backward into the heart chamber it just left reducing forward flow of blood to the body

• Stenosis is if a valve becomes stiff or narrowed, it limits the amount of blood that can pass through it meaning the heart must pump with greater force to push the blood through the restricted opening which can weaken the heart over time

• A valve defect can cause air to get trapped in the alveoli preventing fresh oxygen from entering and efficient CO2 removal

• Symptons that a paitent would tell a doctor is breathing issues, fatigue, heart palpitiations, chest discomfort, dizziness, edema, quick weight gain, chest pain

chloe

Alana & Nour

• blood leaks backwards

• if valve is narrowed, blood flow is restricted

• heart works harder, reducing the amount off blood pumped to lungs

• if less blood in lungs, less blood is available for gas exchange in the alveoili

• some defects in valves cause congestion in lungs (too much pressure) ,thickening the alveoli's walls, causing fluid build up making it harder for gas exchange to happen

• in some cases oxygenated blood may not be efficiently pumped out to the body.

• Even if gas exchange in the lungs is normal, tissues can still have low oxygen

Kyubi/Anja

• fatigue

• Short of breathe

• Over time heart failure

• Chest pain

• Swelling in legs and feet

Why does this happen?

• the leakages cause by the valves unable to close properly or blackages

• This cause the blood to back flow

• Therefore the blood that is oxygenated becomes less likely yo travel to the body leaving less blood available to the areas of the body

• The heart must pump harder and faster to compensate for the lack of oxygenated blood, putting more strain on the heart muscles

• The increase volume from the build up of blood on certain areas of the heart can enlarge the chambers and cause build up of fluid in the lungs, making it even harder to provide oxygen to our body

Firstly, a septal defect is a hole in the wall between the heart’s chambers that eventually leads to abnormal blood flow. This is a result of the left side of the heart pumping at a high pressure that causes oxygen-rich blood to be pushed through the hole and into the right side. Additionally, this sends extra blood to the lungs and makes the right side work more.

Furthermore, septal defects affects gas exchange by controlling how blood reaches the lungs. At first, oxygen-rich blood leaks from the left to the right side of the heart, making the blood recirculate through the lungs. This causes an inefficient gas exchange. Over time, if lung pressure rises, the process reverses and leads to a small amount of blood bypassing the lungs entirely. This means less oxygen would be picked up, and less carbon dioxide would be released. Therefore, resulting to low oxygen levels in the body and cyanosis.

Lastly, the symptoms of septal defects affects gas is:

1. Tired of weak feeling

2. Shortness of breath or even fast breathing depending on how serious the situation is.

3. Heart palpitations

4. Swelling of legs, ankles and belly

5. Frequent chest infections.