I Was Born With Congenital Heart Disease. Are The Abnormal Heart Rhythms I Am Experiencing Something I Was Born With?
Dr. Douglas Zipes answers the question: 'Was I Born With Heart Rhythm Problems?'
— -- Question: I was born with congenital heart disease. Are the abnormal heart rhythms that I am experiencing now something I was born with as well?
Answer :Individuals with congenital heart problems can experience heart rhythm abnormalities, arrhythmias. And they can be due to the congenital heart problem itself, or it can result from repair of the congenital heart problem because the surgery often leaves a scar that can cause that reentry I described earlier and the heart rhythm abnormalities -- arrhythmias -- associated with that.
In addition, there are changes that happen depending upon the congenital heart problem over time. So that an individual in their 30s or 40s might then develop an arrhythmia that took a lot of time to produce, but was still from the congenital heart problem itself. So, there can be essentially immediate arrhythmias shortly after birth, there can be acquired arrhythmias over time either due to the congenital heart problem directly or from the therapy of the congenital heart problem.
