Some recent research has suggested that a proportion of cases of migraine may be caused by PFO. While the exact mechanism remains unclear, closure of a PFO can reduce symptoms in certain cases. This remains controversial; 20% of the general population has a PFO, which for the most part, is asymptomatic. About 20% of the female population has migraines, and the placebo effect in migraine typically averages around 40%. The high frequency of these facts finding statistically significant relationships between PFO and migraine difficult (i.e., the relationship may just be chance or coincidence). In a large randomized controlled trial, the higher prevalence of PFO in migraine patients was confirmed, but migraine headache cessation was not more prevalent in the group of migraine patients who underwent closure of their PFOs.

Tetralogy of Fallot occurs approximately 400 times per million live births and accounts for 7 to 10% of all congenital heart abnormalities.

Presence of a cystic hygroma increases the risk of HLHS in a fetus.

In a retrospective analysis of over 1,300 newborns (born between 1996 and 2006) from 24 children’s hospitals in the United States, researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio found that babies with HLHS were more likely to be born in summer months, suggesting that seasonality and environmental factors may play a significant role in causation.

In terms of the cause of pulmonary atresia, there is uncertainty as to what instigates this congenital heart defect. Potential risk factors that can cause this congenital heart defect are those the pregnant mother may come in contact with, such as:

- Certain medications

- Diet

- Smoking

A patent foramen ovale (PFO) is a small channel that has some hemodynamic consequence; it is a remnant of the fetal foramen ovale, which normally closes at birth. In medical use, the term "patent" means open or unobstructed. In about 25% of people, the foramen ovale fails to close properly, leaving them with a PFO or at least with what some physicians classify as a "pro-PFO", which is a PFO that is normally closed, but can open under increased blood pressure. On echocardiography, shunting of blood may not be noted except when the patient coughs.

Clinically, PFO is linked to stroke, sleep apnea, migraine with aura, and decompression sickness. No cause is established for a foramen ovale to remain open instead of closing naturally, but heredity and genetics may play a role.

The mechanism by which a PFO may play a role in stroke is called paradoxical embolism. In the case of PFO, a blood clot from the venous circulatory system is able to pass from the right atrium directly into the left atrium via the PFO, rather than being filtered by the lungs, and thereupon into systemic circulation toward the brain. PFO is common in patients with atrial septal aneurysms (ASA) which are also linked to cryptogenic (i.e. of unknown cause) strokes.

PFO is more prevalent in patients with cryptogenic stroke than in patients with a stroke of known cause. While PFO is present in only 25% in the general population, the probability of someone having a PFO increases to about 40 to 50% in patients who have had a cryptogenic stroke. Statistically speaking, this is particularly true for patients who have a stroke before the age of 55.

PFO is not treated in the absence of other symptoms, and no consensus exists on treatment of PFO even in the presence of transient ischemic attack or stroke. Moreover, no "gold standard" treatment option is known. However, treatments for PFO include surgical closure and percutaneous device closure, as well as medical therapies such as anticoagulant therapy, and antiplatelet agents.

Research studies of the efficacy of surgical closure treatments versus medical therapies of PFOs in preventing the recurrence of strokes have been conducted; the results are mixed, although “as-treated” and “per-protocol” analyses were positive for closure devices.

PFO closure devices may be implanted via catheter-based procedures, and using a variety of closure devices.

Debate exists within the neurology and cardiology communities about the role of a PFO in cryptogenic neurologic events such as strokes and transient ischemia attacks without any other potential cause. Some data suggest that PFOs may be involved in the pathogenesis of some migraine headaches. Several clinical trials are currently underway to investigate the role of PFO in these clinical situations.

Untreated, tetralogy of Fallot rapidly results in progressive right ventricular hypertrophy due to the increased resistance caused by narrowing of the pulmonary trunk. This progresses to heart failure which begins in the right ventricle and often leads to left heart failure and dilated cardiomyopathy. Mortality rate depends on the severity of the tetralogy of Fallot. If left untreated, TOF carries a 35% mortality rate in the first year of life, and a 50% mortality rate in the first three years of life. Untreated TOF also causes delayed growth and development, including delayed puberty.

Patients who have undergone total surgical repair of tetralogy of Fallot have improved hemodynamics and often have good to excellent cardiac function after the operation with some to no exercise intolerance (New York Heart Association Class I-II). Surgical success and long-term outcome greatly depend on the particular anatomy of the patient and the surgeon's skill and experience with this type of repair.

Ninety percent of people with total repair as babies develop a progressively leaky pulmonary valve later in life. It is recommended that they follow up at a specialized adult congenital heart disease center.

Down syndrome is often associated with AVCD. Other risk factors include: having a parent with a congenital heart defect, alcohol use while pregnant, uncontrolled diabetes treatment during pregnancy and some medications during pregnancy.

This type of congenital heart defect is associated with patients with Down syndrome (trisomy 21) or heterotaxy syndromes. 45% of children with Down syndrome have congenital heart disease. Of these, 35–40% have AV septal defects. Similarly, one-third of all children born with AVSDs also have Down syndrome.

A study also showed that there is also an increased risk of atrioventricular canal in patients who suffer from Noonan syndrome. The pattern seen in those patients with Noonan syndrome differ from those patients who have Down syndrome in that "partial" AVCD is more prevalent in those who suffer from NS, where as those who suffer from down syndrome show a prevalence of the "complete" form of AVCD.

VSDs are the most common congenital cardiac abnormalities. They are found in 30-60% of all newborns with a congenital heart defect, or about 2-6 per 1000 births. During heart formation, when the heart begins life as a hollow tube, it begins to partition, forming septa. If this does not occur properly it can lead to an opening being left within the ventricular septum. It is debatable whether all those defects are true heart defects, or if some of them are normal phenomena, since most of the trabecular VSDs close spontaneously. Prospective studies give a prevalence of 2-5 per 100 births of trabecular VSDs that close shortly after birth in 80-90% of the cases.

The following table includes the main types of valvular stenosis and regurgitation. Major types of valvular heart disease not included in the table include mitral valve prolapse, rheumatic heart disease and endocarditis.

The epidemiology of pulmonary valve stenosis can be summed up by the congenital aspect which is the majority of cases, in broad terms PVS is rare in the general population.

Known environmental factors include certain infections during pregnancy such as Rubella, drugs (alcohol, hydantoin, lithium and thalidomide) and maternal illness (diabetes mellitus, phenylketonuria, and systemic lupus erythematosus).

Being overweight or obese increases the risk of congenital heart disease. Additionally, as maternal obesity increases, the risk of heart defects also increases. A distinct physiological mechanism has not been identified to explain the link between maternal obesity and CHD, but both prepregnancy folate deficiency and diabetes have been implicated in some studies.

Persistent truncus arteriosus is a rare cardiac abnormality that has a prevalence of less than 1%.

When there are holes in the septum that divide the four chambers of the heart the oxygen-rich blood and oxygen-poor blood mix this creates more stress on the heart to pump blood to where oxygen is needed. As a result, you get enlargement of the heart, heart failure (being unable to adequately supply body with needed oxygen, pulmonary hypertension, and pneumonia.

The development of pulmonary hypertension is very serious. And this because the left ventricle is weakened due to its overuse. When this happens, the pressure backs up into the pulmonary veins and the lungs. This type of damage is irreversible which is why immediate treatment is recommended after diagnosis.

Hypoplastic right heart syndrome is less common than hypoplastic left heart syndrome which occurs in 4 out of every 10,000 births. [3].

This rare anomaly requires prenatal diagnosis since it needs immediate and emergency treatment. Pregnant women whose pregnancy is complicated with this anomaly should be referred to a level 3 hospital with pediatric cardiology and pediatric cardiothoracic surgical team.[3]

It can be associated with aortic stenosis.

The cause of congenital heart disease may be genetic, environmental, or a combination of both.

There is no exact mechanism for Lutembacher's syndrome but instead a combination of disorders as the result of Atrial septal defect (ASD) and/or Mitral valve stenosis.

DORV affects between 1% and 3% of people born with congenital heart defects.

Chromosomal abnormalities were reported in about 40% of reported cases in the medical literature.

The prognosis for pulmonary atresia varies for every child, if the condition is left uncorrected it may be fatal, but the prognosis has greatly improved over the years for those with pulmonary atresia. Some factors that affect how well the child does include how well the heart is beating, and the condition of the blood vessels that supply the heart. Most cases of pulmonary atresia can be helped with surgery, if the patient's right ventricle is exceptionally small, many surgeries will be needed in order to help stimulate normal circulation of blood to the heart.If uncorrected, babies with this type of congenital heart disease may only survive for the first few days of life. Many children with pulmonary atresia will go on to lead normal lives, though complications such as endocarditis, stroke and seizures are possible.

Congenital VSDs are frequently associated with other congenital conditions, such as Down syndrome.

A VSD can also form a few days after a myocardial infarction (heart attack) due to mechanical tearing of the septal wall, before scar tissue forms, when macrophages start remodeling the dead heart tissue.

The causes of congenital VSD (ventricular septal defect) include the

incomplete looping of the heart during days 24-28 of development. Faults with NKX2.5 gene are usually associated with isolated (non syndromic) ASD in humans when one copy is missing.

As Lutembacher's syndrome is known for ASD and MS, most of the symptoms experienced will be associated with ASD and MS. For most people, they will remain asymptomatic (experience no symptoms) but when symptoms are shown, they are due mainly to ASD and will vary depending on the size of the hole in the atria. If the patient has a large ASD, pulmonary congestion (blood or fluid buildup in the lungs) will happen later but if the patient has a small ASD, symptoms will appear early in the disorder. In general, unless the ASD and mitral stenosis causing Lutembacher's syndrome is severe, symptoms may not appear until the second and third decade of the patient's life. As many of the symptoms are asymptomic and may not appear until later in life, the duration or frequency of the symptoms varies. For symptoms such as palipitations, ventricular overload, heart failure, and pulmonary congenstion, these symptoms may be sudden and not that frequent as they are very severe symptoms. For symptoms such as loud mitral S1, pulmonary S2, mid-diastolic murmur, fatigue, reduced exercise tolerance, weight gain, ankle edema, and right upper quadrant pain, and ascities, these symptoms may be less frequent and severe; their duration may be only a few seconds, minutes, or even months.

Inflammation of the heart valves due to any cause is called valvular endocarditis; this is usually due to bacterial infection but may also be due to cancer (marantic endocarditis), certain autoimmune conditions (Libman-Sacks endocarditis, seen in systemic lupus erythematosus) and hypereosinophilic syndrome (Loeffler endocarditis). Certain medications have been associated with valvular heart disease, most prominently ergotamine derivatives pergolide and cabergoline.

Valvular heart disease resulting from rheumatic fever is referred to as "rheumatic heart disease". Damage to the heart valves follows infection with beta-hemolytic bacteria, such as typically of the respiratory tract. Pathogenesis is dependent on cross reaction of M proteins produced by bacteria with the myocardium. This results in generalized inflammation in the heart, this manifests in the mitral valve as vegetations, and thickening or fusion of the leaflets, leading to a severely compromised buttonhole valve.

Rheumatic heart disease typically only involves the mitral valve (70% of cases), though in some cases the aortic and mitral valves are both involved (25%). Involvement of other heart valves without damage to the mitral are exceedingly rare.

While developed countries once had a significant burden of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, medical advances and improved social conditions have dramatically reduced their incidence. Many developing countries, as well as indigenous populations within developed countries, still carry a significant burden of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease and there has been a resurgence in efforts to eradicate the diseases in these populations.

Although its cause is poorly understood, situs ambiguous has been linked to family history of malformations and maternal cocaine use, suggesting both genetic and environmental factors play a role. Several genes in the TGF-beta pathway, which controls left-right patterning of viseral organs across the body axis, have been indicated in sporadic and familial cases of atrial isomerism.

There does not appear to be a screening method for prevention of heterotaxy syndrome. However, genetic testing in family members that display atrial isomerism or other cardiac malformations may help to discern risk for additional family members, especially in X-linked causes of heterotaxy syndrome.

Heart septal defect refers to a congenital heart defect of one of the septa of the heart.

- Atrial septal defect

- Atrioventricular septal defect

- Ventricular septal defect

Although aortopulmonary septal defects are defects of the aorticopulmonary septum, which is not technically part of the heart, they are sometimes grouped with the heart septal defects.

A left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO) may be due to a defect in the aortic valve, or a defect located at the subvalvar or supravalvar level.

- Aortic valve stenosis

- Supravalvar aortic stenosis

- Coarctation of the aorta

- Hypoplastic left heart syndrome