title: Systolic time intervals in isolated septal defects before and after corrective surgery in female patients. I. Atrial septal defect.
abstract: Systolic time intervals (STI) were evaluated in 19 female patients with uncomplicated ostium secundum atrial septal defect (ASD), before, shortly after (within 2 months) and a long time after the corrective surgery (mean 13.2 years). The measurements were obtained from simultaneous high speed photographic recordings of electrocardiogram, external carotid pulse and phonocardiogram. Before the operation, a significant prolongation of Q-I heart sound interval was detected, together with a less prominent but statistically significant shortening of the left ventricular ejection time; the above alterations were not correlated with the magnitude of the shunt and disappeared shortly after corrective surgery. The STI were still normal a long time after surgical closure of ASD. In accordance with hemodynamic studies reported by other authors, our results confirm that the deviations of STI observed in ASD are due to a reduced diastolic filling of the left ventricle secondary to an apparent decreased distensibility.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006344:Heart Septal Defects, Atrial / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000503:physiopathology; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D009200:Myocardial Contraction; D013318:Stroke Volume; D013599:Systole