Disease or Syndrome
Heterotaxy syndrome
Subclass of:
Multiple congenital anomalies;
Congenital Heart Defects;
Splenic Diseases
Definitions related to heterotaxy syndrome:
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A rare, genetic disorder in which symptoms are generally secondary to the abnormal location of the organs within the thoracic, abdominal, or peritoneal cavities. Anatomic and functional problems can include cardiac defects, intestinal malrotation leading to volvulus, biliary atresia, and various defects of the central nervous system, urinary tract, and skeleton.NCI ThesaurusU.S. National Cancer Institute, 2021
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Abnormal thoracoabdominal VISCERA arrangement (visceral heterotaxy) or malformation that involves additional CONGENITAL HEART DEFECTS (e.g., heart isomerism; DEXTROCARDIA) and/or abnormal SPLEEN (e.g., asplenia and polysplenia). Irregularities with the central nervous system, the skeleton and urinary tract are often associated with the syndrome.NLM Medical Subject HeadingsU.S. National Library of Medicine, 2021
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Heterotaxy syndrome is a condition in which the internal organs are abnormally arranged in the chest and abdomen. The term "heterotaxy" is from the Greek words "heteros," meaning "other than," and "taxis," meaning "arrangement." Individuals with this condition have complex birth defects affecting the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, intestines, and other organs. In the normal body, most of the organs in the chest and abdomen have a particular location on the right or left side. For example, the heart, spleen, and pancreas are on the left side of the body, and most of the liver is on the right. This normal arrangement of the organs is known as "situs solitus." Rarely, the orientation of the internal organs is completely flipped from right to left, a situation known as "situs inversus." This mirror-image orientation usually does not cause any health problems, unless it occurs as part of a syndrome affecting other parts of the body. Heterotaxy syndrome is an arrangement of internal organs somewhere between situs solitus and situs inversus; this condition is also known as "situs ambiguus." Unlike situs inversus, the abnormal arrangement of organs in heterotaxy syndrome often causes serious health problems. Heterotaxy syndrome can alter the structure of the heart, including the attachment of the large blood vessels that carry blood to and from the rest of the body. It can also affect the structure of the lungs, such as the number of lobes in each lung and the length of the...MedlinePlus GeneticsU.S. National Library of Medicine, 2021
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