False echocardiographic diagnosis of ruptured acquired sinus of Valsalva aneurysm

✍ Scribed by Christie B. Hopkins

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 364 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0091-2751
• DOI: 10.1002/jcu.1870100314

✦ Synopsis

Sinus of Valsalva aneurysms may be congenital or acquired.l The echocardiographic manifestations of both ruptured and unruptured sinus of Valsalva aneurysms have previously been d e ~r i b e d . ~-~ The most common cause of acquired sinus of Valsalva aneurysm is infective endocarditis.l If the aneurysm has ruptured into the right ventricle, right ventricular volume overload4 as well as systolic and diastolic fluttering of the tricuspid valve leaflets5 have been reported. The purpose of this report is to present a patient with echocardiographic findings which simulated a ruptured sinus of Valsalva aneurysm.

Methods

The two-dimensional and M-mode echocardiographic images were recorded with a Varian V-3000 unit. The M-mode echocardiogram was recorded with a Honeywell Visicorder on Smith-Kline EchoGraph paper. The two-dimensional image was recorded on a Sanyo video tape recorder. Both M-mode and two-dimensional images were photographed with a 35-mm camera through a K-2 filter, using Kodak Tri-X film.