title: Denver shunt causing abnormal right atrial mass: noninvasive determination of shunt patency by color-coded Doppler shuntography.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Medizinische Klinik, KKH Reutlingen, Akademisches Lehrkrankenhaus, Universitaet Tuebingen, West-Germany.
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Hust
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Grathwohl
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fritz
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Metzler
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Felton
authors.forename: B B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Braun
mesh_terms: 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