Double Inlet Right Ventricle

Illustration of a normally-formed human heart.




Drawing of Luna's heart (the two tunnel-looking things at the top that are hard to read say LPA (Left Pulmonary Artery) and RPA (Right Pulmonary Artery)-they are the arteries that feed blood to the lungs and then to the rest of the body.

Yesterday on twitter some fellow CHD parents were looking for a drawing of a double inlet single ventricle. I happened to have one, since that is what Luna's diagnosis is. I then dug-out this description that Luna's cardiologist wrote. I wanted to publish it here so the world could learn better about Luna's anatomy.

Reading Dr. G's description leaves me speechless. I forget-or perhaps keep deep at the back of my mind-how rare and unusual Luna's heart is. What's more amazing about all this, is the kid is perfectly HEALTHY!


"Luna has one single ventricle, and in these complicated cases, it can be hard to tell whether it is a single right or a single left one. Luna is felt to have a single right ventricle. She also has a double inlet- both "AV valves" or inlets into her ventricle enter into the one single chamber, giving her "Double Inlet Right Ventricle", even more rare than Double Inlet Left Ventricle (DILV). She also has dextrocardia- heart in the right side of her chest instead of left- and she also has transposed great arteries, meaning the aorta is in front of her pulmonary instead of behind. However, many single ventricle kids have pulmonary stenosis, but she goes beyond "pulmonary stenosis" (pulm valve has a very narrowed opening) to what she has, "pulmonary atresia" (valve not open at all, or never formed). Luna will undergo the same surgeries as many other single ventricle kids to re-route blood flow."