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blue baby

 
Dictionary: blue baby
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n.
An infant born with cyanosis as a result of a congenital cardiac or pulmonary defect that causes inadequate oxygenation of the blood.


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Columbia Encyclopedia: blue baby
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blue baby, infant born with a congenital heart defect that causes a bluish coloration of the skin as a result of cyanosis (deoxygenated blood). The color is most noticeable around the lips and at the tips of the fingers and toes. The cyanotic condition occurs when a large portion of the venous blood bypasses the lungs. Normally, deoxygenated blood from the veins is pumped from the right side of the heart to the lungs, where it is oxygenated (see circulatory system). In some blue babies, the pulmonary artery is too narrow to allow sufficient blood to pass into the lungs for oxygenation. Surgical correction of the defect is usually required and is usually successful. An incompatibility of fetal and maternal blood types may also cause a bluish coloration in newborn infants, a condition that results when red blood cells in the infant's blood are destroyed by antibodies in the mother's blood (see Rh factor). Sophisticated knowledge of blood types has made this condition increasingly rare.

Medical Dictionary: blue baby
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n.

An infant born with cyanosis as a result of a congenital cardiac or pulmonary defect that causes incomplete oxygenation of the blood.

WordNet: blue baby
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: an infant born with a bluish color; usually has a defective heart

Wikipedia: Blue baby syndrome
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A cyanotic newborn, or "blue baby"

Blue baby syndrome (or simply, blue baby) is a layman's term used to describe newborns with cyanotic conditions, such as

Blue baby syndrome can also be caused by Methemoglobinemia. It is caused by high nitrate contamination in ground water resulting in decreased oxygen carrying capacity of hemoglobin in babies leading to death. The groundwater gets contaminated by leaching of nitrate generated from fertilizer used in agricultural lands and waste dumps [4]. It may also be related to some pesticides (DDT, PCBs etc), which cause ecotoxicological problems in the food chains of living organisms, increasing BOD, which kills aquatic animals.

Surgery

On November 29, 1944, the Johns Hopkins Hospital was the first to successfully perform an operation to relieve Tetralogy of Fallot.[5] The syndrome was brought to the attention of surgeon Alfred Blalock and his laboratory assistant Vivien Thomas in 1943 by pediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig, who had treated hundreds of children with Tetralogy of Fallot in her work at Hopkins' Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children. The two men adapted a surgical procedure they had earlier developed for another purpose, involving the anastomosis, or joining, of the subclavian artery to the pulmonary artery, which allowed the blood another chance to become oxygenated. The procedure became known as the Blalock-Taussig shunt, although in recent years the contribution of Vivien Thomas, both experimentally and clinically, has been widely acknowledged.

References

  1. ^ "Hopkins pioneered 'blue baby' surgery 50 years ago 'I Remember ... Thinking It Was Impossible'". http://www.jhu.edu/gazette/aprjun95/may3095/30blue.html. Retrieved 2008-03-24. 
  2. ^ "Blue baby links - 11 February 2006 - New Scientist". http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18925380.200-blue-baby-links.html. Retrieved 2008-03-24. 
  3. ^ "Blue Baby Syndrome". http://www.ecifm.rdg.ac.uk/bluebabs.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-24. 
  4. ^ "The Blue Baby Syndrome". http://www.springerlink.com/content/p2617714686806w6/. 
  5. ^ Thomas, Vivien T. (1998). Partners of the Heart: Vivien Thomas and His Work With Alfred Blalock. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812216342. 

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
Medical Dictionary. The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Blue baby syndrome".  Read more