The Relationship of Patent Ductus Arteriosus to Infectious Processes in the Duct Itself, in the Pulmonary Artery, the Aorta and the Heart Valves *

The association of infectious lesions in the heart and vessels with preexisting congenital defects was, pointed out by that acute observer James Paget as long ago as I 844. Like many other medical observations it was, for a time, lost sight of and it is only in recent years, particularly since the work of Lewis and Grant in i922 on the infection of congenitally abnormal aortic valves, that attention has again been focused on the subject.