[Echocardiography and Doppler study of congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries]

Abstract

In order to determine the echocardiographic and Doppler characteristics of patients with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries we studied 5 patients with this condition. Mean age was 19 years, ranging from 6 to 57 years. All patients except the oldest were asymptomatic. In all the patients we could observe the typical pattern of ventricular inversion by two-dimensional echocardiography from the apical view. There was dilation of systemic ventricle in 2 patients and dilation of venous ventricle in every patient. The anterograde valvular flows were normal, and also the hepatic vein flow, showing no impediment in the filling of venous atrium and venous ventricle. We observed tricuspid regurgitation in all the patients probably due to valvular inadaptation to the high ventricular pressure. Two-dimensional echocardiography can easily show the alterations of patients with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries. The cardiac Doppler gets additional information about the valvular performance.