[Color Doppler echocardiography in emergency diagnosis of ventricular septal rupture after acute myocardial infarct].

A 58-year-old man developed a rupture of the interventricular septum after acute posterior myocardial infarction. The two-dimensional echocardiographic features of the ruptured interventricular septum included akinesia of posterior wall, hyperkinesia of the interventricular septum and anterior wall, inferior basal septum aneurysm and visualization of the ventricular septum defect. Injection of echocardiographic contrast (Gelatin solution) into the right atrium showed a small right-to-left shunt, injection into the left ventricle (during heart catheterization) demonstrated massive crossing of echocontrast similar to the results of cineventriculography of the left ventricle. By coloured Doppler-echocardiography the left-to-right shunt could directly be visualized, as well as a diastolic right-to-left shunt. By calculation of pressure gradient using adjusted continuous wave Doppler, estimation of right ventricular pressure was possible. The results demonstrated that colour Doppler in addition to two-dimensional echocardiography has an important diagnostic role in patients with complications of myocardial infarction.