@Article{chd.2023.025639,
AUTHOR = {Alberto Cresti, Stefania Sparla, Stefania Stefanelli, Andrea Picchi, Ugo Limbruno},
TITLE = {Ventricular Septal Crypts: Remnants of Spontaneous Interventricular Defect Closure?},
JOURNAL = {Structural and Congenital Heart Disease},
VOLUME = {18},
YEAR = {2023},
NUMBER = {1},
PAGES = {1--6},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/schd/v18n1/51281},
ISSN = {3071-1738},
ABSTRACT = {<b>Background:</b> Ventricular crypts are quite a common finding during cardiac imaging, but their etiology is unclear. A possible final result of a spontaneous ventricular septal defect closure has been supposed but never investigated in earlier studies. <b>Method:</b> From January 1997 to December 2020, all newborns diagnosed to have a ventricular septal defect were prospectively entered in our database and those with an isolated defect were included in the study. Ventricular septal defects were classified into four types: perimembranous, trabecular muscular, inlet and outlet. A long-term follow up was performed in order to visualize the possible residual formation of a septal myocardial crypt. 
 <b>Results:</b> A total of 376 isolated ventricular septal defects (314 muscular and 54 perimembranous, 4 inlet, 4 outlet) were detected. Follow up ranged from 1 to 23 years and showed that, among muscular type, a spontaneous closure occurred in 284 (91%), 26 did not close (8,28%), 2 required surgical intervention (0,63%), 3 were lost at follow up (0,95%). During this period, after spontaneous defect closure closure, 20 crypts were found (6,4%). <b>Conclusion:</b> This study shows that a muscular ventricular septal defect may evolve in the 6.4% of cases in a residual septal crypt. Although septal crypts occur more frequently in patients affected by hypertrophic and hypertensive cardiomyopathy, they may also represent the evolution of a spontaneous closure of a muscular interventricular defect.},
DOI = {10.32604/chd.2023.025639}
}