title: A comparison of information obtained by ultrasound examination and cardiac catheterisation in paediatric patients with congenital heart disease.
abstract: Fifty-eight paediatric patients were studied by cross-sectional echocardiography and pulsed Doppler ultrasound in a blind fashion. The information obtained was compared with data collected at cardiac catheterisation. The correct anatomical diagnosis was made by ultrasound in almost all cases but in 11 patients the diagnosis was incomplete or incorrect. Flow measurements made at the tricuspid valve, the pulmonary trunk and the ascending aorta using pulsed Doppler ultrasound correlated well with Fick measurements (r greater than 0.9 at all three sites). The correlation of pressure gradients by the two methods was 0.94. Measurement of the time to peak velocity in the pulmonary trunk provided a method for the identification of patients with elevated pulmonary pressure but the relationship with measured pressures was not sufficiently strong to provide a high degree of reliability.
authors.forename: D F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Dickinson
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Goldberg
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D001794:Blood Pressure; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D002648:Child; D004452:Echocardiography; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery; D006351:Heart Valves / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D011669:Pulmonary Wedge Pressure; D012212:Rheology