Pulmonary hypertension in infant

Posted By Anji on April 17, 1998 at 20:21:52:







My son was born with a complete atrio-ventricular canal, PDA, pulmonary hypertension and Down Syndrome.
He had problems with CHF, failure to thrive, etc. and had heart surgery at 3 months of age.  He is now 14 months old.  
He has had problems since his surgery with rapid breathing, cyanosis, wheezing not related to illness.  
These problems HAVE gotten better since the early days post-op, but still continue.  What can you
tell me about pulmonary hypertension, and could this actually be the reason for his continued problems?  We have
scheduled PFT's with his pulmonologist, and depending on the outcome of those, may do a follow-up cardiac cath.  This
scares me, as he had a very traumatic first cath.  Are there other things that we could look into taht could be causing
these problems? I was under the impression that lasting damage from PH rarely occurs within the first several months of life,
and since he had his heart repaired (almost totally) at such an early age, how likely is it that this could be the problem?
Thank you,
Anji