Iriart Xavier, Roubertie François, Jalal Zakaria, Thambo Jean-Benoit
Congenital heart disease unit, Bordeaux university hospital, Pessac, France; Institut de rythmologie et de modélisation LIRYC, université de Bordeaux, Inserm 1045, Bordeaux, France.
Institut de rythmologie et de modélisation LIRYC, université de Bordeaux, Inserm 1045, Bordeaux, France; Surgical centre for congenital heart disease, Bordeaux university hospital, Pessac, France.
Arch Cardiovasc Dis. 2016 Feb;109(2):120-7. doi: 10.1016/j.acvd.2015.11.008. Epub 2016 Feb 2.
Improvements in cardiac imaging have recently focused a great interest on the right ventricle (RV). In patients with congenital heart disease, the right ventricle (RV) may support the systemic circulation (systemic RV). There are 2 different anatomic conditions providing such physiology: the congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (ccTGA) and the TGA surgically corrected by atrial switch. During the last decades, evidence is accumulating that progressive systemic RV failure develops leading to considerable morbidity and mortality. Various imaging modalities have been used to evaluate the systemic RV, but echocardiography is still predominantly used in clinical practice, allowing an anatomic and functional approach of the systemic RV function and the potential associated anomalies. The goal of this review is to offer a clinical perspective of the non-invasive evaluation of the systemic RV by echocardiography.
