Title: tetralogy of Fallot
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - tetralogy of Fallot
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.11297
Status: current

Definition
Set of four congenital cardiac defects involving an opening in the wall that should separate the right and left ventricles (ventricular septal defect), allowing the aorta to receive venous as well as arterial blood: including stenosis of the pulmonary artery, hypertrophy of the right ventricle, and displacement of the aorta. Right ventricular hypertrophy is the fourth part of the tetralogy, although it may also be a consequence of the other defects.

Notes
1) The constellation of anatomical defects is understandable in terms of a flaw in the ordered sequence of events in the normal development of the heart and associated vessels.
2) These anatomical defects are the most common cardiac cause of cyanosis in infants.

Related Terms
- aorta: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10416
- cardiac: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10489
- congenital: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10552
- cyanosis: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10579
- hypertrophy: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10828
- pulmonary artery: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11157
- stenosis: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11256
- ventricular septal defect: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11365

Source
- PAC, 2016, 88, 713. 'Glossary of terms used in developmental and reproductive toxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2016)' on page 812 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-1202)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11297/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11297/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11297/xml

Citation: Citation: 'tetralogy of Fallot' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.11297
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-05-15T04:03:57+00:00