Congenital and Acquired (Valvular) Heart Diseases

Abstract

Until the introduction of heart catheterization in the 1950s, congenital heart disease was diagnosed by the interpretation of symptoms, heart auscultation, thoracic X-rays, and the ECG. In 1967 Burch and DePasquale [1] published a book of 773 pages entitled Electrocardiography in the Diagnosis of Congenital Heart Diseases; one detail of note in this book is that four forms of single ventricle were diagnosed (or suspected) on the basis of ECG features. However, modem diagnosis of congenital and acquired heart anomalies is made by heart catheterization and angiography, and even more often by echocardiogram and color Doppler.

Nevertheless, the first suspicion of a congenital heart anomaly is presently based on the patient’s symptoms and on several clinical findings. Let us not forget heart auscurtation.The ECG may be quite typical in some congenital heart diseases, perhaps allowing one to presume the disease, sometimes (in the case of Eisenmenger syndrome) allowing one to recognize important hemodynamic aspects.