Diagnosis and surgical treatment of "angiographically absent pulmonary artery syndrome".

Among the heart diseases, there are some cases in which pulmonary arteries cannot be visualized by standard right ventriculography and aortography. We have categorized such a case as "angiographically absent pulmonary artery syndrome", which may include congenital or acquired absent pulmonary artery, and anatomically present but non-visualized pulmonary artery. It has been extremely difficult to achieve an accurate diagnosis in such cases and there has been no report of successful surgical treatment for them. Recently, we developed a method of retrograde pulmonary arteriography, with which the pulmonary artery can be successfully visualized in cases of angiographically absent pulmonary artery. Subsequently, re-establishment of the blood flow to the non-visualized pulmonary artery has been successfully performed in 7 of 8 cases of this syndrome. --angiographically absent pulmonary artery syndrome; retrograde pulmonary arteriography; surgical repair.