Dynamic three-dimensional echocardiography using parallel slicing: a promising diagnostic procedure in adults with congenital heart disease.

In 18 of 77 adult patients presenting with congenital heart disease, three-dimensional conceptualization was found to be insufficient using two-dimensional echocardiographic imaging. In these individuals, three-dimensional image reconstruction from digitized parallel images was carried out, providing additional information in 14 of them. Three-dimensional echocardiography and volumetry may, especially in patients with atrial septal defect, cor triatriatum and corrected transposition of the great arteries, be an asset amplifying the diagnostic information yielded by conventional two-dimensional echocardiographic approaches.