TWO-DIMENSIONAL AND CONTRACT ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF TETRALOGY OF FALLOT / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

One hundred cases of tetralogy of Fallot, confirmed by surgery, had been studied by two-dimensional echocardiography (2-DE). The preoperative diagnostic accuracy of the 2-DE was found to be 95%. All of VSDs, right ventricular hypertrophies and narrowings of the right ventricular "outflow tracts were demonstrated by the 2-DE. 97% of the over-riding aorta and 97.5% of the deformities of pul-monic valves were visualized. Contrast echocardiography demonstrated that moderate to massive amounts of contrast media were shunted from the right ventricle to the aorta during systole in 93% of the cases while the absence of contrast medium in. or the amount of such medium gaining access to the main pulmonary artery could be clearly visualized. Thus the contrast study was quite helpful in identifying pulmonary atresia and in quantitating the degree of pulmonary stenosis. Factors affecting the correct diagnosis of tetralogy of Fallot were then discussed.