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Pediatric Transesophageal Color Flow Imaging 1990: The Long and Short of It
Author(s) -
RITTER SAMUEL B.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
echocardiography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1540-8175
pISSN - 0742-2822
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8175.1990.tb00424.x
Subject(s) - medicine , biplane , cardiology , cardiac imaging , cardiac surgery , radiology , heart disease , intensive care , intensive care unit , intensive care medicine , engineering , aerospace engineering
Noninvasive cardiac imaging has dramatically altered the practice of cardiology, specifically, the pediatric patient with congenital heart disease over the past decade. Since the introduction of transesophageal echocardiography nearly 15 years ago, addition of high‐resolution cross‐sectional imaging combined with Doppler color flow mapping has provided a new window to examine the heart. Recently, miniaturization of the transesophageal probe to “pediatric‐size” has enabled its use in the smallest of infants to add significantly to the assessment of congenital heart malformations. Most recently, addition of a longitudinal‐plane probe to the already‐existent, transverse‐plane probe has made biplane transesophageal echocardiography a reality with significant additional information being provided by orthogonal images of the cardiac structures. We used these probes in complementary fashion in 30 studies performed in 23 patients ages 1 day to 12 years with a mean of 35 months, weighing 2.6–40 kg (mean 12.4 kg). These studies were performed in the operating room, intensive care unit, cardiac catheterization laboratory, and outpatient department. Limitations of single‐plane, transverse transesophageal echocardiography were overcome using the longitudinal‐axis pediatric probe: left and right ventricular outflow tracts, distal pulmonary arteries, and all of the interventricular and atrial septa were easily visualized. Its use in the operating room and postoperative cardiac intensive care unit for continuous ventricular monitoring in otherwise‐inaccessible patients also provided critical information. Transesophageal echocardiography in infants and small children is a valuable “noninvasive” imaging technique which, with addition of complementary longitudinal‐plane views, offers important additional information regarding congenital heart malformations and their repair.