ABSTRACT
Objective To compare the value of color Doppler echocardiography in the diagnosis of coarctation of the aorta (COA) in comparison with CT angiography (CTA). Methods Ninety-two patients with COA were retrospectively analyzed that were confirmed by surgery from January 2009 to September 2013 and diagnosed by color Doppler echocardiography and CTA. Results Among 92 COA patients conifrmed by surgery, 87 patients were diagnosed correctly by echocardiography while 91 patients were diagnosed by CTA, and the accuracy of echocardiography and CTA were 95%(87/92) and 99%(91/92), respectively without significant difference (χ2=1.550, P=0.213). According to surgical findings, there were 222 anatomic abnormalities including 110 intra-cardiac, 13 heart-vessel connection and 99 vessel abnormalities. For 110 intra-cardiac abnormalities, echocardiography detected all abnormalities while CTA found 92 with 18 missed including 11 valve or valve ring lesions, 3 patent foramen ovale, 2 atrial septal defect, 1 ventricular septal defect and 1 endocardial cushion defect. The accuracy of echocardiography for intra-cardiac abnormalities was signiifcantly higher than that of CTA (100%, 110/110 vs 84%, 92/110,χ2=18.801, P=0.000). CTA and echocardiography detected all abnormalities of heart-vessel connection. For 99 vessel abnormalities, CTA showed an accuracy of 98%(97/99) with 2 missed lesions including 1 collateral circulation between the aorta and the pulmonary artery and 1 membranous narrow of the aorta, while echocardiography misdiagnosed 1 COA as interruption of aortic arch and missed 15 lesions, including 4 COA, 3 collateral arteries, 2 patent ductus arteriosus, 2 aberrant right subclavian artery, 2 brachiocephalic vein abnormality, 1 partial anomalous pulmonary venous drainage and 1 persistent left superior vena cava. The accuracy of CTA for detection of vessel abnormalities was signiifcantly higher than that of echocardiography (98%, 97/99 vs 84%, 83/99,χ2=11.350, P=0.000). Conclusions Both CTA and echocardiography are effective diagnostic modalities for COA and CTA is superior to echocardiography for detecting vessel anomalies whereas echocardiography is superior to CTA for detecting intra-cardiac abnormalities. The combination of both modalities will provide more accurate information for clinical diagnosis.