Denver shunt causing abnormal right atrial mass: noninvasive determination of shunt patency by color-coded Doppler shuntography.
An unusual floating mass was detected in the right atrium of a 71-year-old man with liver cirrhosis and intractable ascites using two-dimensional echocardiography. The mass was caused by the venous tip of a Denver peritoneovenous shunt. Shunt patency could be assessed easily by compression of the pump body; this maneuver resulted in a laminar or turbulent flow that was recorded at the tip of the shunt in the right atrium by color-coded Doppler echocardiography. We are reporting the first case demonstrating the value of echocardiography in diagnosing a Denver shunt in the heart and shunt patency by color-coded Doppler shuntography.
Hust
M H
MH
Medizinische Klinik, KKH Reutlingen, Akademisches Lehrkrankenhaus, Universitaet Tuebingen, West-Germany.
Grathwohl
I
I
Fritz
S
S
Metzler
B
B
Felton
C
C
Braun
B B
BB
D000368:Aged; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D010536:Peritoneovenous Shunt; D014654:Vascular Patency