Guide To The Symptoms Of Truncus Arteriosus

Poor Feeding And Growth

Individuals with truncus arteriosus often exhibit poor feeding and growth as a result of their heart defect. Poor feeding can be best defined as a lack of appetite or not consuming a sufficient amount of calories regularly. Because mostly oxygen-poor blood is circulating around the body in these individuals, the tissues around the body do not get enough oxygen to carry out normal metabolic processes. A primary cellular process is the conversion of nutrients into usable energy or ATP. Without sufficient cellular energy, the body tissues the cells make up will not work as they should. The impairment of this mechanism can cause an affected individual to not have enough energy to eat properly regularly. Poor growth occurs when an individual does not grow in terms of weight and height according to their age. Poor growth happens as a combination of poor feeding and a higher rate of metabolism for the few calories that are metabolized. The result of this is the patient continuously burns off more calories than they are consuming. When the cells in the body run out of calories to metabolize into usable energy, they start breaking down and metabolizing the patient's fat stores. This depletion of fat stores also contributes to the patient's poor growth.

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