To evaluate left-to-right shunts after percutaneous balloon mitral valvuloplasty, we studied 15 consecutive patients by using transesophageal color Doppler flow-imaging system. Transesophageal color Doppler examinations were performed five times in each patient (before valvuloplasty and 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, and 6 months after valvuloplasty). No shunt flow was observed before valvuloplasty. O...

Right and left ventricular volume characteristics were determined from biplane cineangiocardiography in 37 patients with isolated ventricular septal defects. Patients were divided into three categories as determined by the degree of left-to-right shunt: small shunt-less than 35% of pulmonary blood flow (N=9); moderate shunt-35-49% (N=8), and large shunt-greater than 50% (N=20). Right ventricula...

AIM Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is still considered as the reference method for the non-invasive detection of right-to-left shunts. Echocardiographic laboratories are spending most of their time performing TEE studies to exclude a thromboembolic cardiac disease. In a considerable proportion of these patients the question can be simplified to exclude a PFO. Replacing these TEE studies...

Evidence is presented which indicates that shunting of small amounts of blood from right to left occurs frequently through interatrial communications. Such right-to-left shunts are of small magnitude in the usual case of atrial septal defect, but it appears that of the fractions of blood shunted, a greater proportion has originated from the inferior vena cava than from the superior vena cava.

SUMMARY Seventy-two patients with left-to-right shunts were studied an average of 5 years after operation. Persistent residual shunts occurred in 24 of the 72 patients and were unsuspected clinically in 11. While significant residual shunts were usually suspected in the group with ventricular septal defects (VSD), residual shunts in the group with atrial septal defects (ASD) were frequently uns...

We studied the effect on the circulation of the catecholamines isoproterenol, dopamine, and dobutamine in chronically instrumented lambs with aortopulmonary left-to-right shunts (ages 11 to 87 days) and without shunts (ages 8 to 97 days). Infusion of 0.1 microgram/kg/min isoproterenol or 10 micrograms/kg/min dobutamine markedly increased heart rate and systemic and pulmonary blood flows, while ...

Transient hypoxemia is not uncommon after major cardiac or thoracic surgery. The differential diagnosis includes atelectasis, pulmonary embolus, pneumonitis, congestive heart failure and several other diverse cardiovascular and pulmonary problems. Less well recognized is transient right to left intracardiac shunting through a patient foramen ovale or previously unsuspected atrial septal defect....