Q: My son 8 years old has been diagnosed with a bicuspid aortic valve. He is normal and quite active. Just a week back we took him to a doctor for his cold problem and during the check up and we were told that there was some other noise too coming and so we were referred to paediatric cardiologist who diagnosed it as bicuspid aortic valve. He said it is a birth defect and cannot be cured. He also told us that there can be blockage over a period of time and it is only during this time that it can be heard. But now nothing can be done to it. He also told us that at present there is no block and since he is very normal just to forget about it. We are very concerned about this. Could you throw more light on this? Do we need to take any precautions?

A:Bicuspid aortic valve is a birth defect where in the aortic valve has only 2 in contrast to the normal 3 cusps. There are no cures. The spectrum of severity varies from severe obstruction at birth to no obstruction throughout life. A small percentage will develop degenerative changes in the 40 to 60 years of age. At present from this account there does not seem to be any obstruction and therefore nothing to worry about. An echo every 5 years would be necessary to document any progress.