[Limitations of two-dimensional echocardiography in infants under one month of age].

One hundred and thirty-three children less than one month of age and presenting with congenital heart disease were investigated using two-dimensional echocardiography (TD echo). In these children, 234 cardiovascular abnormalities had been proven by hemodynamic and angiographic investigations (n = 103), post-mortem examinations (n = 15) or operative findings (n = 12). TD echo identified 201 cardiovascular abnormalities with 33 false negatives (sensitivity 86%) and 12 false positives (specificity 94%). Diagnosis after TD echo was correct in 100 children (75%), incomplete in 18 (13.5%), imprecise in 11 (8.3%) and false in 4 (3%). The most frequently unrecognized lesions were: anomalous systemic venous drainage (5/8), persistent ductus arteriosus (5/12), pulmonary stenosis (3/8), ventricular septal defect (5/27), coarctation (2/18). The lesions difficult to characterize concerned mostly the pulmonary valve and the aspect of the aortic arch. On the other hand, TD echo allowed to correctly identify major intracardiac abnormalities, malpositions of the great vessels and to well appreciate the dimensions of the trunk and branches of the pulmonary artery. These results allow to refrain from diagnostic endocavitary investigations in most of the heart defects revealed in the neonatal period and to perform curative or palliative closed heart surgery without preoperative catheterization. However, clinical, angiographic and hemodynamic investigations keep an important place in the preoperative evaluation of defects that may benefit from open heart surgery.