What is a situs inversus?
General Discussion. Dextrocardia with Situs Inversus is a rare heart condition characterized by abnormal positioning of the heart. In this condition, the tip of the heart (apex) is positioned on the right side of the chest.
How do you confirm situs inversus?
Situs abnormalities may be recognized first by using radiography or ultrasonography. However, computed tomography (CT) scanning is the preferred examination for the definitive diagnosis of situs inversus with dextrocardia.
What is situs inversus liver?
0.01% Situs inversus (also called situs transversus or oppositus) is a congenital condition in which the major visceral organs are reversed or mirrored from their normal positions. The normal arrangement of internal organs is known as situs solitus.
What is a normal situs?
Situs solitus is the medical term referring to the normal position of thoracic and abdominal organs. Anatomically, this means that the heart is on the left with the pulmonary atrium on the right and the systemic atrium on the left along with the cardiac apex.
What is situs inversus with levocardia?
Solid Organs and Heart An extremely rare variant of situs inversus is situs inversus with levocardia. In this anomaly, there is mirror-image location of the abdominal organs with a left-sided cardiac apex. This variant is almost always associated with congenital heart disease (,21).
What does levocardia mean?
Strictly speaking, levocardia means that the cardiac apex is left sided. Isolated levocardias are those hearts that are left sided when situs inversus is present.
How does situs inversus progress?
The retinal vessels exiting from the optic nerve generally progress directly temporally. However, on occasion they take a nasal bend, prior to heading temporally. The temporal half of the nerve generally appears full, and the optic cup is generally absent.
What is the cause of situs inversus?
Situs inversus is caused by an autosomal recessive genetic condition. An unaffected carrier mother and an unaffected carrier father have a 1 in 4 chance of having a child with situs inversus. Because many genetic steps would have to come together to cause situs inversus, the condition is rare.
What is Situs levocardia?
Situs solitus (rare plural: sitūs soliti) refers to the normal position of the thoracic and abdominal organs. This will include a left-sided heart, also known as levocardia.
What causes situs inversus cilia?
The underlying basis for situs inversus totalis in PCD has been attributed to dysfunction of the embryonic nodal cilia that play a key role in directing normal rotation of viscera. Without functional nodal cilia, thoracoabdominal laterality becomes random.
What gene is responsible for situs inversus?
Some people have dextrocardia with situs inversus as part of an underlying condition called primary ciliary dyskinesia. Primary ciliary dyskinesia can result from changes ( mutations ) in several different genes, including the DNAI1 and DNAH5 gene; however, the genetic cause is unknown in many families.