The Presence of Venoarterial Shunts in Patients with Interatrial Communications

Abstract
Evidence is presented which indicates that shunting of small amounts of blood from right to left occurs frequently through interatrial communications. Such right-to-left shunts are of small magnitude in the usual case of atrial septal defect, but it appears that of the fractions of blood shunted, a greater proportion has originated from the inferior vena cava than from the superior vena cava.