Ventricular special defect in the elderly: an uncommon clinical entity.

Ventricular septal defect (VSD) is the most frequent congenital heart disease in adults, with equal distribution in both sexes, and has an incidence of about 20% in children. In adults congenital VSDs represent about 10% of all cases and the mortality at age 60 is around 75%. For elderly patients >80 years old only one living case has been reported previously. Here we describe an 86-year-old patient, totally asymptomatic, with a muscular type of VSD that showed interesting, canal-like echocardiographic images.