QODDevelopment-RobertWoodJohnsonMedicalSchool.pptVIP

QOD Cardiology;You are treating a 4-month-old infant who was born with tetralogy of Fallot. Her mother brings her to the clinic because she has had diarrhea and fever since the previous evening. On physical examination, the infant is irritable and has cyanosis and a heart rate of 180 beats/min.;Of the following, the finding that is MOST consistent with a tetralogy spell is;Answer C;Most patients who have TOF do not present with cyanosis in the newborn period, but rather come to medical attention because of a harsh systolic murmur. The murmur results from infundibular stenosis and pulmonary stenosis, not from the VSD. The second heart sound is single. Because the degree of pulmonary blood flow obstruction can vary among patients, the degree of systemic oxygen desaturation ranges from mild to severe. Children who have mild obstruction may appear pink, and those who have severe pulmonary stenosis have significantly reduced pulmonary blood flow and an increase in right-to-left shunting across the VSD into the aorta, leading to more pronounced cyanosis. Furthermore, as pulmonary blood flow decreases with tight pulmonary stenosis, pulmonary venous return to the left atrium decreases, resulting in less highly saturated blood leaving the left ventricle and entering the aorta. Conversely, mild pulmonary stenosis is associated with more pulmonary blood flow, less right-to-left intracardiac shunting, and less systemic desaturation. In the mildest cases, there is left-to-right shunting across the VSD and near-normal or normal systemic saturation.A decreased or absent murmur signifies diminished pulmonary blood flow, as occurs in the cyanotic spell or tetralogy spell. Such spells are marked by distress, crying, inconsolability, hyperpnea, and increasing cyanosis, as described for the infant in the vignette. They frequently occur in the morning or at times of dehydration (eg, fever, gastroenteritis). If not treated quickly, cyanotic spells can lead to serious morbidity and e