All issues > Volume 34(7); 1991

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1991;34(7):934-939. Published online July 31, 1991.

Pulsed doppler echocardiographic analysis of pulmonary venous flow in congenital heart diseases with left-to-right shunt.

Kye Hwan Seol¹, Chang Sung Son¹, Joo Won Lee¹, Soon Kyum Kim¹, Young Chang Tockgo¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul, Korea

Received: December 28, 1990;  Accepted: March 13, 1991.

Abstract

Pulsed Doppler echocardiography was performed to evaluate the flow velocity pattern of the pulmonary vein in 28 patients with congenital heart diseases which comprised of 8 atrial septal defect (ASD), 14 ventricular septal defect (VSD) and 6 patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). 20 normal children served as controls. The objective of this study was to ascertain that pulmonary venous flow velocity is dependent on the amount of pulmonary blood flow, through the analysis of pulmonary venous flow pattern. The results obtained were as follows. 1) The peak velocities of S wave in ASD, VSD and PDA during systole were 55.4±10.8 cm/sec, 48±11.9 cm/sec and 49.8±11.0 cm/sec respectively. The mean value (50.7±11.4 cm/sec) of these 3 lesions was significantly higher than that (45.9±7.0 cm/sec) of normal controls. 2) The peak velocities of 0 trough in ASD, VSD and PDA were 38.9±7.5 cm/sec, 33.2±9.3 cm/sec and 33.6±0.1 cm/sec respectively. The mean value (35.6±9.1 cm/sec) of these 3 lesions was signifi- cantly higher than that (26.5±7.5 cm/sec) of normal controls. 3) There was no significant difference of the D wave velocity between the left -to-right shunt group (50.4±9.9 cm/sec) and normal control group (50.8+7.7cm/sec). 4) In view of overall pattern of pulmonary venous flow velocity, the normal control group tended to show the type 1 pattern in which the magnitude of S wave was smaller than that of D wave, and the group with congenital heart diseases tended to show the type 2 pattern in which the height of S wave was larger than that of D wave. 5) The difference in the velocity and the flow pattern of pulmonary vein observed in patients with left-to-right shunt lesions was considered to be due to the increase of total pulmonary blood flow resulting from the contribution of shunt flow through the defect to the normal pulmonary venous flow. So we could conclude that the pulmonary venous flow velocity is influenced by the amount of pulmonary blood flow.

Keywords :Pulmonary Venous Flow;Pulsed Doppler Echocardiography