title: Right-to-left atrial shunt without pulmonary artery hypertension.
abstract: A 70-year-old woman without any history of pulmonary or cardiac disease developed breathlessness with severe arterial hypoxemia. Cardiac ultrasound examination and spirometry were normal. Cardiac catheterization and intravenous microbubble injection demonstrated an interatrial right-to-left shunt. The defect was closed surgically, and the patient recovered immediately. On surgery, the aorta was elongated, inducing an angulation of the interatrial septum and leading to the atrial septal defect just above the inferior vena cava.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chest Diseases and Allergy, Hôpital Nord, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gouitaa
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vaillant
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Leude
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Badier
authors.forename: Henri
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Malaterre
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Barbier
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Charpin
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology*; D001013:Aorta, Thoracic / Q000473:pathology*; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000209:etiology*