[The treatment of critical valvular stenosis of the pulmonary artery by the balloon valvuloplasty method in patients in the first 3 years of life]. / Lechenie kriticheskogo klapannogo stenoza legochnoi arterii metodom ballonnoi val'vuloplastiki u bol'nykh pervykh 3 let zhizni.

The work generalizes the experience of the Bakulev Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery in balloon valvuloplasty of valvular pulmonary stenosis in 58 children of the first 3 years of life: 8 were 1 to 6 months of age, 10 were 7 to 12 months of age, 18 were 13 to 24 months old, and 22 were 25 to 36 months old. Cyanosis was found in 27 of them. As the result of balloon valvuloplasty, the systolic pressure gradient between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery reduced from 114.7 +/- 12.6 to 31.4 +/- 7.2 mm Hg in children under 1 year of age, from 143 +/- 12.6 to 40.1 +/- 8.3 mm Hg in children aged from 1 to 3 years. In patients with cyanosis, saturation of arterial blood with oxygen increased to 92%. The late-term results were studied in follow-up periods of 6 to 36 months in 35 patients, by means of catheterization and angiocardiography in 15 of them. Analysis showed balloon valvuloplasty to be effective. Balloon valvuloplasty was repeated in 5 patients with critical stenosis because a hemodynamic effect was not achieved by the first dilatation.

[Doppler echocardiographic diagnosis of tricuspid valve insufficiency after plastic surgery of ventricular septal defects in children]. / Dopler-ékhograficheskaia diagnostika nedostatochnosti trekhstvorchatogo klapana posle plastiki defektov mezhzheludochkovoi peregorodki u detei.

The methods of bidimensional echocardiography and doppler-echocardiography were used in appraising the condition of the tricuspid valve before and after plastic surgery of ventricular septal defects in 113 patients. Surgical approach through the right atrium was used in plastics of the ventricular septal defect. The patients were examined before the operation and 2 weeks after it; 77 patients were studied in follow-up periods of 6 months to 2 years after the operation. Pansystolic turbulent regurgitation of blood was detected only in 4 patients before plastic repair of the ventricular septal defect. Pansystolic turbulent regurgitation at the tricuspid valve was registered in the immediate postoperative period and 2 weeks after the term periods in many patients and persisted only in 29% of cases. It should be emphasized that tricuspid incompetence was not manifested clinically in these patients. It is concluded that doppler-echocardiography is an effective and highly-sensitive method for the diagnosis of tricuspid incompetence, even if it has no clinical signs.