Title:Peripheral Microvascular Dysfunction in Children and Adults with
Congenital Heart Disease: A Literature Review
Volume: 20
Issue: 4
Author(s): Inne Vanreusel*, Wendy Hens, Emeline Van Craenenbroeck, An Van Berendoncks and Vincent F.M. Segers
Affiliation:
- Department of Cardiology, Antwerp University Hospital, 2650 Edegem, Belgium
- Research Group Cardiovascular
Diseases, GENCOR, University of Antwerp, 2610 Antwerp, Belgium
Keywords:
Microvascular dys function, peripheral microvascular dys function, endothelial dys function, endothelium, vascular/ physiopathology MeSH, congenital heart disease, heart defects, congenital MeSh.
Abstract: Although there is a continually growing number of patients with congenital heart disease
(CHD) due to medical and surgical advances, these patients still have a poorer prognosis
compared to healthy individuals of similar age. In patients with heart failure, microvascular dysfunction
(MVD) has recently emerged as a crucial modulator of disease initiation and progression.
Because of the substantial pathophysiological overlap between CHD and heart failure induced
by other etiologies, MVD could be important in the pathophysiology of CHD as well.
MVD is believed to be a systemic disease and may be manifested in several vascular beds. This
review will focus on what is currently known about MVD in the peripheral vasculature in CHD.
Therefore, a search on the direct assessment of the vasodilatory capacity of the peripheral microcirculation
in patients with CHD was conducted in the PubMed database. Since there is little data
available and the reported studies are also very heterogeneous, peripheral MVD in CHD is not
sufficiently understood to date. Its exact extent and pathophysiological relevance remain to be
elucidated in further research.