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Tetralogy of Fallot Video Series
This video series explains Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), a congenital heart malformation in which blood flow is blocked from entering the lungs. Fetal Heart Program and Cardiac Center staff discuss how they diagnosis the condition before birth, monitor babies through pregnancy and delivery, and surgically repair the defect.
Videos in this Series
Transcript: How TOF Develops
Jack Rychik, MD: --as we sweep anteriorly there, what you see is the small pulmonary artery there--
Thomas Spray, MD: Tetralogy of Fallot is one of the most common congenital heart defects, and probably the first significant congenital heart defect to be addressed surgically.
Peter Gruber, MD: The problem with Tetralogy of Fallot is that the orientation of the muscle on the inside of the heart is abnormal.
Thomas Spray, MD: The septum, the partition between the two ventricles, forms slightly more anterior or frontwards than it should.
Jack Rychik, MD: As that tissue that sits beneath the two great vessels is positioned in front of the pulmonary artery, it results in the four findings of tetralogy. First, there is a ventricular septal defect, or an opening, between the two lower pumping chambers. Second, there is a narrowing of the pathway from the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery, or what we call pulmonary stenosis. Third, there is a repositioning of the aorta, which is the vessel that delivers blood to the body, such that it's overriding the two lower pumping chambers. And fourth, there is development of thickening, or hypertrophy, of the right ventricle as the blood is ejected out through the narrowing of the pulmonary artery.
Peter Gruber, MD: So it was described as a tetralogy, or four basic problems. But, in general, there's one problem and that is that the muscle underneath the great vessels, or the aorta and pulmonary arteries, has not formed in the proper location.
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