[Ebstein's anomaly of the tricuspid valve. Study of 13 cases in childhood].

We describe 13 cases of Ebstein's anomaly of the tricuspid valve. Seventy percent of there cases were detected at one month of age. Ten patients died and 9 presented associated cardiac anomalies. Signs of right heart failure were the clinical date that made possible the diagnosis of the disease in the most severe cases in the neonatal period. Only two patients had alteration of the cardiac rhythm: One had tachycardia that ended with ventricular fibrillation and the other had a 2:1 heart block. Echocardiography was very useful to establish the diagnosis: one hundred percent of the patients showed a delay in closing of the tricuspid in relation to the mitral valve, with a range of 0,03 to 0,06 seconds. Angiocardiographic studies revealed a tricuspid valve displacement in 8 cases, and double contour image in 6. The septal and posterior leaflets were hypoplasic in the 10 anatomic cases and in 80 percent of them it was possible to differentiate the cords from the papillary muscles.