• M F Stoddard and R A Longaker.
• Division of Cardiology, University of Louisville, KY 40202.
• Am. Heart J. 1993 Jun 1; 125 (6): 1676-81.

AbstractTransthoracic echocardiography has played a useful role in the screening of cardiac transplant donors. However, transthoracic echocardiograms may be suboptimal in many patients on ventilators. The role of transesophageal echocardiography in cardiac donor screening is unknown. Therefore we compared the potential benefit of transesophageal echocardiography combined with transthoracic echocardiography in 24 (16 men and 8 women) consecutive brain-dead patients with a mean age of 29 +/- 9 years (range 16 to 44 years), who were being considered as cardiac transplant donors. Transthoracic echocardiography was performed immediately before or after transesophageal echocardiography. Transthoracic echocardiography was technically difficult in 7 of 24 (29%) patients. Results of transesophageal echocardiography were abnormal in five of the seven patients and demonstrated left (n = 4) and right (n = 3) ventricular wall motion abnormalities and concentric left ventricular hypertrophy (n = 2). The four patients with wall motion abnormalities were eliminated as potential donors. In 16 of 17 patients with technically adequate transthoracic echocardiograms, transesophageal and transthoracic echocardiographic findings agreed and demonstrated normal hearts in 13 patients, left (n = 2) and right (n = 1) ventricular wall motion abnormalities in two patients, and isolated concentric left ventricular hypertrophy in one patient. In 1 of the 17 patients with a technically adequate transthoracic echocardiographic study, a bicuspid aortic valve was demonstrated by transesophageal echocardiography but not diagnosed by transthoracic echocardiography. Overall seven patients were eliminated as cardiac donors on the basis of transesophageal echocardiograms (n = 7), transthoracic echocardiograms (n = 2), or both.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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