Deductive echocardiography

Deductive echocardiography is a step-by-step approach in diagnosing and differentiating congenital heart disease.

Parameters assessed

• position of heart 
  • levocardia
  • dextrocardia
• visceroatrial situs
  • solitus
  • inversus
  • ambiguus
• ventricular loop
  • D-loop
  • L-loop
• conotruncus
  • normal
  • transposed
  • malrotated

Approach

Conceptually, the heart is divided into three segments:

• atria
• ventricles 
• great arteries

Steps

• determination of the atrial situs (inferred from features of visceroatrial situs)
• identification and location of ventricles
  • mitral to semilunar valve continuity
  • fishmouth appearance of mitral valve
  • insertion level of AV valve 
• recognition of great arteries 
• arterio-ventricular connections
• identification of obstructive lesions
• identification of cardiovascular shunts
  • right-to-left
  • left-to-right
  • mixed

Siehe auch:

• Echokardiographie