title: Failure of medicine: evolution of an atrial septal defect to an Eisenmenger syndrome.
abstract: The atrial septal defect (ASD) is the most commonly diagnosed congenital defect in adults and has a prevalence of 7.5% of all congenital cardiac anomalies. Less invasive imaging techniques, especially transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiography, provide more accurate diagnostics, resulting in earlier diagnosis and treatment. Despite these opportunities in high-tech countries, medicine may still fail in detecting initially correctable cardiac anomalies. We present a case of 41-year-old woman with an abnormal murmur at childhood that disappeared with time due to the development of an Eisenmenger syndrome. The importance of a complete haemodynamic evaluation in this patient is illustrated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, UZ Leuven, Belgium. Werner.Budts@uz.kuleuven.ac.be
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Budts
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Cleemput
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Van de Werf
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001794:Blood Pressure; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D002302:Cardiac Output; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D017548:Echocardiography, Transesophageal; D004541:Eisenmenger Complex / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D005471:Fluoroscopy; D006337:Heart Murmurs; D006344:Heart Septal Defects, Atrial / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D009569:Nitric Oxide
chemical_list: D009569:Nitric Oxide