Congenital diseases are defects that are present at birth. Some congenital heart defects are found in childhood. Others are not identified until adulthood. Some examples of congenital heart defects include:
- Openings between the walls that normally separate heart chambers. An example would be an atrial septal defect or ventricular septal defect.
- Malformation of blood vessels, such as in coarctation — or a pinched narrowing — of the aorta.
- Valve defects causing stenosis (narrowing) or regurgitation (leakiness). One example would be a bicuspid aortic valve where there are two leaflets instead of the normal three.
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