[Quantitative assessment of pulmonary blood flow by echocardiography in patients with congenital heart defect].

Objective: To explore the possibility and reliability of echocardiography in quantitative evaluation of pulmonary blood flow in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD).

Methods: Sixty-four patients with left to right shunt congenital atrial septal defect (ASD) underwent echocardiographic examinations of the right upper and lower pulmonary vein blood flow spectrum in the four-chamber face, and the right upper pulmonary vein flow velocity time integral (VTIrupv) and right inferior pulmonary venous flow velocity time integral (VTIrlpv) were calculated according to the heart rate. The VTIrupv and VTIrlpv were compared with the pulmonary blood flow (Qp) calculated by Fick method with right heart catheterization.

Results: There was a high correlation between the right lung vein flow velocity time integral measured by the catheter of transthoracic echocardiography and Qp.

Conclusion: The pulmonary venous flow spectrum measured by echocardiography can be informative of the pulmonary blood flow in patients with CHD. Echocardiography may serve as a potential noninvasive technique to evaluate pulmonary blood flow in these patients.