Pulmonary Artery Stenosis Associated with Ductus Arteriosus Following Maternal Rubella

Abstract

Nine patients with pulmonary artery stenosis associated with patent ductus arteriosus following maternal rubella are described. Five of the patients had bilateral pulmonary artery stenosis and four cases involved only the right pulmonary artery. Mild pulmonary valvular stenosis was present in five and a ventricular septal defect in one. The persistence of a systolic murmur transmitted to the lateral chest wall, after ligation or division of a patent ductus arteriosus, should arouse suspicion of the presence of pulmonary artery stenosis. This report supports the recently described implication of maternal rubella as a cause of pulmonary artery stenosis. Careful auscultation in patients with history of maternal rubella may discover the presence of such an arterial anomaly, but cardiac catheterization and angiocardiography are necessary for substantiation of diagnosis. The natural history of these lesions is not known.