[Evolution of lesser circulation hypertension in patients with congenital heart defects based on the example of an interventricular septal defect].

The results of direct pressure measurement in pulmonary circulation in 452 patients with ventricular septal defect (216 males and 236 females), whose age ranged from 12 months to 37 years, were analysed. The findings of diagnostic catheterization of the heart in 150 practically healthy persons 12 months to 40 years of age were used to elaborate the normal values of pressure in pulmonary circulation. The results of pressure measurement in pulmonary circulation repeated at intervals of 1 to 6 years in 46 patients with ventricular septal defect, 18 months to 23 years of age, were analysed. Reverse evolution of pressure in pulmonary circulation after surgical rehabilitation was followed up in 85 patients in 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 years after the operation. At the age of 12 months to 7 years, systolic pressure in the right ventricle and pulmonary artery comes down to a possible minimum due to expenditure of the adaptational reserve. In large ventricular septal defects, however, the organism proves incapable of reducing the pressure in the early and first periods of childhood as a rule, and so the pressure increases throughout life.