The Roentgen Spectrum in Persistent Common Atrioventricular Canal

Abstract

The poor prognosis in patients with the complete form of persistent atrioventricular canal makes almost mandatory the preoperative determination of which patients have a functionally significant interventricular septal defect. These face a grave operative mortality, and the possibility of preliminary pulmonary artery banding must be considered. This is especially important in view of the better clinical results in patients with associated pulmonic stenosis. Any roentgen maneuver which will help to divide the cases into subgroups of prognostic significance should be performed. By careful use of physiologic and radiologic data these patients can almost always be placed in the proper prognostic group. Plain roentgeo-grams have been helpful in subdivision, and angiocardiography is useful in absolutely confirming the diagnosis of atrioventricular canal defect and is of some help in subdividing cases.