J Korean Pediatr Soc.  1999 Dec;42(12):1683-1688.

Postoperative Doppler Echocardiographic Study of Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return

• Cho NC
• Lee HD
• Sung SC

Abstract

PURPOSE: We conducted this study to evaluate the efficacy of Doppler study by examining obstruction at the site of anastomosis in patients with total anomalous pulmonary venous return(TAPVR).
METHODS
Retrograde analysis of the postoperative echocardiography results was done in 14 patients with simple TAPVR, who were operated at Dong-A University Hospital from January 1993 to July 1998. The peak systolic velocities, peak diastolic velocities and flow patterns of the 14 patients were compared with those of 9 control cases. Among the 14 patients, 2 cases showed evidence of obstruction at the anastomosis site.
RESULTS
Pulmonary venous flow patterns of normal infants were biphasic, varying with the cardiac cycle. The peak velocities during systole and diastole were 40 to 60cm/sec(mean 51+/-9cm/sec) and 45 to 78cm/sec(mean 59+/-9cm/sec), respectively. The flow patterns of patients without postoperative stenosis were also biphasic. The peak velocities during systole and diastole was 38 to 115cm/sec(mean 71+/-27cm/sec) and 55 to 140cm/sec(mean 111+/-28cm/sec), respectively. The diastole peak velocity was significantly higher than normal(P=0.0002). The flow patterns of patients with postoperative stenosis was continuous, non-phasic or increased peak velocity even though it was phasic.
CONCLUSION
Postoperative Doppler echocardiographic evaluation of pulmonary venous return in patients with TAPVR is useful in examining obstruction at the site of anastomosis. But a study on the Doppler echocardiographic normal range of postoperative patients will be needed.

Keyword

TAPVR; Doppler echocardiography

MeSH Terms

Constriction, Pathologic
Diastole
Echocardiography*
Echocardiography, Doppler
Humans
Infant
Reference Values
Scimitar Syndrome*
Systole