<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the possibility and reliability of
echocardiography in
quantitative evaluation of
pulmonary blood flow in
patients with
congenital heart disease (CHD).</p><p><b>
METHODS</b>Sixty-four
patients with left to right shunt
congenital atrial septal defect (ASD) underwent echocardiographic examinations of the right upper and lower
pulmonary vein blood flow spectrum in the four-chamber
face, and the right upper
pulmonary vein flow velocity
time integral (VTIrupv) and right inferior pulmonary venous flow velocity
time integral (VTIrlpv) were calculated according to the
heart rate. The VTIrupv and VTIrlpv were compared with the
pulmonary blood flow (Qp) calculated by Fick
method with right
heart catheterization.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There was a high correlation between the right
lung vein flow velocity
time integral measured by the
catheter of
transthoracic echocardiography and Qp.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The pulmonary venous flow spectrum measured by
echocardiography can be informative of the
pulmonary blood flow in
patients with CHD.
Echocardiography may serve as a potential noninvasive
technique to evaluate
pulmonary blood flow in these
patients.</p>