Assessment of operability for common arterial trunk without cardiac catheterisation

Pulmonary vascular disease is a risk factor for the surgical management of common arterial trunk. Surgical repair, therefore, is usually performed in early infancy, before irreversible changes can occur in the epulmonary vasculature. Because of this, there has been an increasing tendency to dispense with cardiac catheterisation as a means of assessing pulmonary vascular disease. Cardiac catheterisation, nonetheless, is still performed when there is a risk of pulmonary vascular disease, such as in older children. There are no clear guidelines, however, as to who should be catheterised. We have developed a simple screening test to help make this decision.