Transposition Of The Great Arteriess

Description of Disease Transposition of the great arteries is a life threatening congenital heart defect. In transposition of the great arteries, the two main arteries, the aorta and the pulmonary artery, are reversed. These arteries are responsible for carrying blood away from the heart through the left or right ventricle depending on whether the blood has been oxygenized or not. In a normal heart, there is a constant blood flow pattern in which blood is cycled from the body to the heart, the heart to the lungs, where it is oxygenated, then, from the lungs, back to the heart, and back to the body. When a transposition occurs within a heart, it impairs the path of the blood’s cycle by connecting the two main arteries to the wrong chambers of the heart. The hearts shown in Figure 1 compare a healthy heart on the left with a heart with transposition of the great arteries on the right. The healthy heart shows the aorta connected to the left ventricle …show more content…
A chest x-ray creates images of internal tissues, bones, and organs, which evaluates the size and spatial relationships of the heart within the chest (Harrild, 2010). An electrocardiogram is a test that shows abnormal heart rhythms and detects heart muscle stress. An echocardiogram produces a moving picture of the heart and heart valves, which evaluates the structure and function of the heart (Transposition of the Great Arteries, 2016). Lastly, a cardiac catheterization is a much more invasive procedure. The newborn must be sedated and a catheter is inserted into the infant’s blood vessel in the groin and is guided to the inside of the heart. This catheter is then able to take measurements of the blood pressure and oxygen levels in the four different chambers of the heart in addition to the two main