The diagnostic value of two echocardiography methods for atrial septal aneurysm

To evaluate the diagnostic value and clinical significance of two echocardiography methods in detecting atrial septal aneurysm (ASA). 44 cases of ASA with normal carotid arteries were retrospectively analyzed. Characteristic of ASA was detected by Transthoracic echocdrdiography (TTE) and Transesophageal echocordioqraphy (TEE), including the width of basal part, maximal excursion or protrusion beyond the plane of the atrial septum, direction of protrusion, motion, thickness of wall, presence of thrombi attaching to the wall, atrial septal defect, outflow tract obstruction and other structural abnormalities associated with ASA. It was founded that ASA occurred in the oval fossa, and the vast majority of ASA stretch to the right atrium. 4 cases were complicated by atrial septal defect and 6 cases were patent foramen ovale. No significant differences were found with two methods in bulging height, width, and wall thickness of ASA between children, adolescent and adult. ASA´s TEE diagnostic accuracy of 92.6%, while only 54.5% of TTE. The results suggest that two methods have reliable diagnostic value to ASA, can find with or without complications and provide valuable information for clinical diagnosis and treatment. TEE is more helpful to characterize different types of ASA and superior to TTE in the diagnostic accuracy to ASA.