Accuracy of prospective two-dimensional/Doppler echocardiography in the assessment of reparative surgery.

Between January 1987 and January 1989, all 129 patients (aged 11 days to 25 years, median 39 months) undergoing both an echocardiographic examination and cardiac catheterization after reparative surgery were prospectively included in a study to assess the accuracy of combined two-dimensional and Doppler color flow imaging. The patient diagnoses were transposition of the great arteries (n = 20), tetralogy of Fallot (n = 38), coarctation of the aorta (n = 24), complete atrioventricular (AV) canal (n = 15), atrial septal defect (n = 8), ventricular septal defects (n = 3), pulmonary stenosis (n = 4), aortic stenosis (n = 8) and subaortic stenosis (n = 9). In arterial tract stenosis, there was high correlation between Doppler estimates and catheterization-derived measurements of residual right ventricular outflow tract obstruction in patients after the arterial switch operation for transposition of the great arteries (r = 0.95) as well as in patients after corrective repair of tetralogy of Fallot (r = 0.84). In semilunar/AV valve regurgitation, graded as none, mild, moderate or severe, echocardiographic estimates correlated exactly with angiographic grading in 84% and differed by one angiographic grade in the other 16%. In residual left to right shunting, no hemodynamically significant shunt was missed by echocardiography. For residual shunts at the ventricular level (n = 32), addition of Doppler color flow imaging improved the sensitivity (from 63% to 94%) and the negative predictive value (from 88% to 98%). In elevated right ventricular pressure, Doppler-derived right ventricular-right atrial pressure estimates in 24 patients correlated well with catheterization measurements (r = 0.93). Combined two-dimensional and Doppler color flow echocardiography was highly accurate in the prospective evaluation of these four types of postoperative residual.