Real-time two-dimensional echocardiography in differentiating vascular from nonvascular mediastinal lesions.

We evaluated the ability of two-dimensional echocardiography to differentiate vascular from nonvascular causes of radiologic mediastinal masses or widening. In 22 patients with a radiologic mass, two-dimensional echo detected a mass in 11 patients, an aortic aneurysm in four patients, left ventricular pseudoaneurysm in four patients, and marked pulmonary artery dilatation in three patients. In 36 patients with mediastinal widening, two-dimensional echocardiography detected an aneurysm in 28 and a mass in four patients; it was normal in four patients. Two-dimensional echocardiography can differentiate vascular from nonvascular radiologic mediastinal abnormalities.