Echocardiographic Features of Atrial Septal Defect
- 1 January 1971
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Circulation
- Vol. 43 (1), 129-135
- https://doi.org/10.1161/01.cir.43.1.129
Abstract
Echocardiographic studies were performed on 39 adult patients with atrial septal defects. Findings were compared with those from normal subjects, patients with other congenital left-to-right shunts (ventricular septal defect and patent ductus arteriosus), patients with uncomplicated right ventricular pressure overload (pulmonic stenosis and pulmonary hypertension), and patients with pulmonary hypertension complicated by tricuspid regurgitation. Two echocardiographic features were assessed: 1) a right ventricular dimension, or RVD Index, representing the distance between the right ventricular epicardial echoes and echoes from the right side of the interventricular septum divided by the patient's body surface area, and 2) motion of the interventricular septum. The increased RVD Index and abnormal septal motion observed in the patients with atrial septal defects provided an ultrasound complex that could clearly separate these patients from normal individuals, those with ventricular septal defect and patent ductus arteriosus, and those with uncomplicated right ventricular pressure overload. However, patients with tricuspid regurgitation could not be differentiated from the group with atrial septal defects, indicating that this echocardiographic complex reflected a volume overload of the right ventricle.Keywords
This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
- Estimation of right and left ventricular size by ultrasound: A study of the echoes from the interventricular septumThe American Journal of Cardiology, 1969
- Pericardial effusion diagnosed by reflected ultrasoundThe American Journal of Cardiology, 1968
- The EchocardiogramNew England Journal of Medicine, 1966
- Ultrasound Diagnosis of Pericardial EffusionJAMA, 1965