Abstract

Seher Gokay MD*, Davran Cicek MD, Haldun Muderrisoglu

Atrial septal defect is one of the most common congenital heart lesions. Isolated atrial septal defects are mostly asymptomatic, and remain therefore undiagnosed until adulthood in a significant number of patients. Partial atrioventricular septal defect, on the other hand, has a life expectancy of 3 to 37.5 years, but occasionally patients may present in their adulthood. We report a case of an 83-year-old female with partial atrioventricular septal defect who had syncope, near-syncope and palpitations for the last three years and was diagnosed by routine echocardiography. Because atrial septal defect has long-standing deleterious effects of volume overload on the right cardiac chambers, the consequent pulmonary hypertension and right atrial enlargement increase the vulnerability to atrial arrhythmias and stroke. The late onset of pulmonary hypertension was presumed to be the reason for the very late onset of the symptoms of this patient.