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What Is an Atrial Septal Defect?

April 26, 2017atrial defect septal

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What Is an Atrial Septal Defect?

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An atrial septal defect (ASD) is a direct communication (usually a hole or multiple holes) between the upper two chambers of the heart (the atria). It allows shunting of blood between the two chambers. There are several kinds of atrial septal defects, but the most common is one in which there is a hole directly in the middle of the septum (secundum ASD). The image in Figure 1 is an MRI showing the dropout in the middle of the atrial septum that occurs in a secundum ASD.