[Pulmonary sling in a patient with anomalous intrathoracic heart displacement (diagnosis and surgical treatment)].

The pulmonary sling is the origin of the left pulmonary artery from the right one, this is a rare abnormality giving a marked clinical picture. The paper presents a case of solely rare combination of the pulmonary of the pulmonary sling with abnormal cardiac placement--dextroversion. A three-year-old child underwent explorative thoracotomy for erroneously diagnosed mediastinal cyst.

[Surgical treatment of congenital mitral valve insufficiency].

The experience of surgical treatment of 55 congenital mitral incompetence patients aged 3 to 34 years is analysed. Patients with the anomalies of the conotruncus, mitral stenosis, and open atrioventricular conduit were not included into the analysis. The preoperative clinical status of all the patients was evaluated as functional class III-IV.

[Surgical treatment of patients with tetralogy of Fallot in combination with a double aortic arch].

A late congenital anomaly--double arch of the aorta (DAA)--was combined with Fallot's tetrad (FT) in 4 patients whose ages ranged from 21 months to 11 years. The diagnosis of DAA and FT was established before the operation in 3 patients, in one patient DAA was discovered during the operation. In three children DAA was manifested clinically by dysphagia and stridor.

[Diagnosis of hypoplasia of the heart ventricles: role of morphometry and morphology in its assessment].

The article deals with the results of the study of the quantitative anatomy and morphology of hypoplastic ventricles. The object of study were 28 specimens of the heart: 15 with hypoplasia of the left ventricle and 13 with hypoplasia of the right ventricle. The control group was composed of 10 specimens of normal hearts.

[Echocardiographic diagnosis of Valsalva's sinus aneurysm].

Valsalva's sinus aneurysm is a congenital heart disease that may occur both as isolated abnormality or combined with other ailments. The present paper summarizes the results of the use in 20 patients of non-invasive research methods, namely ultrasound cardiography and Doppler's cardiography, in the diagnosis of Valsalva's sinus aneurysms and concomitant heart diseases. Analysis of the findings has shown that the use of ultrasound cardiography in conjunction with pulse Doppler's cardiography permits demonstration with a high accuracy of the direct signs of Valsalva's sinus aneurysm without use of invasive methods, identification of the rupture of its wall and the pathological diastolic blood flow to the cavity corresponding to the rupture.

[Quantitative evaluation of hypoplasia of the heart ventricles and its significance for heart surgery].

The quantitative anatomy and morphology of hypoplastic ventricles were studied in 28 afflicted hearts (15 with left ventricular hypoplasia, 13 with right ventricular hypoplasia). The control comprised 10 normal heart specimens. All the 38 specimens were studied morphometrically; this was complemented with angiocardiometry and ventricular volume estimations in diagnosing right ventricular hypoplasia.

[Echocardiographic potentials in the diagnosis of the right ventricular hypoplasia syndrome].

A total of 15 patients with the right-ventricular hypoplasia syndrome and 3 with cyanosis of noncardiac nature were examined, 20 healthy subjects were controls. The authors noted that the localization of the tricuspid valve from usual position is rather difficult and suggested that the right parasternal lines be used for this purpose. Echocardiographic signs of the right-ventricular hypoplasia syndrome are the combination of the diminished size of the right ventricular cavity with reduction of the opening amplitude and deceleration of the early diastolic closing of the anterior cusps of the tricuspid valve and with increased opening amplitude of the anterior mitral cusp.

[Inversion of the ventricles and major vessels].

The authors carried out a detailed anatomic examination of hearts from 17 fatal cases in which the diagnosis of corrected transposition of the aorta and pulmonary artery had been made by the clinical data. Corrected transposition was found in 13 preparations and rare complicated heart defects in the other 4. The paper describes at length the anatomy of the ventricles, great vessels and coronary arteries of the heart in corrected transposition as well as the anatomy of the accompanying defects.