Accuracy of Transthoracic Echocardiography in Detecting Persistent Left Superior Vena Cava against the Cardiac Computed Tomography Scan

Abstract

Introduction: Detection of the persistent left superior vena cava (LSVC) is essential to diagnosing pediatric congenital heart diseases (CHDs). Transthoracic echocardiography is the most commonly used diagnostic tool for CHDs. This study compares transthoracic echocardiography and cardiac computed tomography (CT) to detect LSVC. Methods: Retrospective review of 49 pediatrics patients with CHDs who underwent echocardiography and cardiac CT. Results: Forty-nine pediatric patients with CHDs who underwent CT scans were included. In acyanotic CHD patients, CT identified four with bilateral superior vena cava (SVC), while echocardiography picked up three and missed one. In the remaining 16 patients with acyanotic CHDs, CT found single right-sided SVC; however, two of these were misidentified as having bilateral SVC during echocardiography. In the cyanotic CHD group, four patients had bilateral SVC. All four were picked up by echocardiography as well. However, echocardiography diagnosed one additional patient as having bilateral SVC, while the patient actually had a single SVC on CT scan. Conclusion: Transthoracic echocardiography can reasonably detect persistent LSVC in pediatric CHD patients.

Keywords

• cardiac computed tomography scan
• congenital heart disease
• echocardiogram
• left superior vena cava