Annex A > Chapter 3 - Developments in the UK, in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Congenital Heart Abnormalities in Children, 1984-1995 > Diagnosis and initial assessment > Echocardiography

Echocardiography

16 Echocardiography is the name given to the use of ultrasound scanning to produce images of the heart. During the late 1970s and early 1980s echocardiography became widely used to define congenital heart abnormalities and by 1982-1984 some definitive articles and textbooks had been written on the subject. By 1984 most paediatric cardiologists in the UK were using echocardiography in order to provide a reasonably accurate initial diagnosis. This was true as regards most of the abnormalities that have been of particular concern to the Inquiry: Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD), Atrio-Ventricular Septal Defect (AVSD), Tetralogy of Fallot, [6] Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA), hearts with one effective ventricle and Truncus Arteriosus. Others, such as Coarctation of the Aorta and Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Drainage (TAPVD), could be diagnosed by the use of echocardiography, but less easily. It was expected that in some cases there would be uncertainty about the diagnosis and the finer details. In such cases, it was then necessary to supplement the echocardiographic diagnosis by using the techniques of cardiac catheterisation.

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Footnotes

[6] Also referred to as `Fallot's Tetralogy'