Color Doppler echocardiographic characteristics of bilocular heart and associated cardiac malformations / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To probe into the color Doppler echocardiographic characteristics of bilocular heart (BH) and associated malformations. Methods Twenty patients of BH were examined with color Doppler echocardiography (CDE) and the characteristics were observed. All the CDE results were compared with angiocardiography and 14 were confirmed by operation. Results Nineteen cases were properly diagnosed based on the CDE characteristics,1 case were misdiagnosed as mitral atresia. CDE characteristics of BH were obvious① Apical four-chamber view of two-dimensional echocardiography (2DE) showed total echo dropout in both the interatrial septum and the interventricular septum and disappearance of the intracardiac "cross". The common atrioventricular valve closed during systole and appeared as figure "8", named 2DE "8" sign. During diastole, the common atrioventricular valve opened to a common ventricle. ② Color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) showed common intra-atrial flow signal entereda common ventricle through common atrioventricular valve during diastole in all patients and colorful reflux through common atrioventricular valve during systole in 15 cases. ③ Among the 20 eases, 16 of the common atria were situs solitus,4 were situs inversus; 10 of the common ventricles were type A,2 were type B and 8 were type C. According to the spatial relationship of the great arteries,there were 4 type Ⅰ ,7 type Ⅱ and 9 type Ⅲ.There were 18 pulmonary stenosis and 2 pulmonary hypertension. ④ In the presence of pulmonary stenosis, CDFI showed colorful shunt signals through pulmonary artery during systole. Conclusions BH and associated malformations have obvious echocardiographic characteristics. CDE has a specific value in diagnosing BH and associated malformations.