Contrast echocardiography in detection of portopulmonary venous anastomosis.

Portopulmonary venous anastomosis is a potential channel for systemic arterial embolization during embolization procedures for bleeding esophageal varices. To document the presence of such anastomoses, 15 patients with esophageal varices were studied by real-time contrast echocardiography combined with transhepatic cineportography. Cinefluorographic technique, which was applied for this purpose, occasionally failed to demonstrate the dynamic events in the left atrium because of rapid dilution of contrast medium. Echocardiography after the injection of dextrose solution into the gastric coronary vein allowed two-dimensional real-time images of contrast echoes in the left cardiac chambers. By combining these two methods, more reliable diagnostic information was obtained in five of the 15 patients studied.