Determinants of Ventricular Septal Motion

To test the hypothesis that the ventricular septum moves during systole toward the center of ventricular mass (so that the end-diastolic position of the septum within the heart should determine both the direction and the magnitude of septal motion during systole), echocardiograms from patients with several different hemodynamic burdens were analyzed. A linear relation was noted between the end-diastolic intracardiac position of the ventricular septum and the direction and magnitude of systolic septal motion in I) forty three patients with an atrial septal defect (regression coefficient r = 0.80),