investigations
Last edited 06/2020 and last reviewed 12/2022
Features include :
- chest radiography shows a prominent pulmonary artery, an enlarged right heart, pulmonary plethora - excessive pulmonary blood flow.
- in the common ostium secundum defect the axis may be normal or shifted to the right. In the ostium primum defect there is left axis shift.
- echocardiogram permits visualisation of the atrial septal defect and demonstrates any dilatation of the right heart.
- doppler studies may show possible flow disturbance.
- cardiac catheterization confirms the diagnosis - serial measurements of oxygen saturation up the vena cava show an abrupt step at the level of the right atrium.