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Denver shunt causing abnormal right atrial mass: noninvasive determination of shunt patency by color-coded Doppler
M H Hust1, I Grathwohl, S Fritz
1Medizinische Klinik, KKH Reutlingen, Akademisches Lehrkrankenhaus, Universitaet Tuebingen, West-Germany.
Abstract:
An unusual floating mass was detected in the right atrium of a 71-year-old man with liver cirrhosis and intractable ascites using two-dimensional echocardiography. The mass was caused by the venous tip of a Denver peritoneovenous shunt. Shunt patency could be assessed easily by compression of the pump body; this maneuver resulted in a laminar or turbulent flow that was recorded at the tip of the shunt in the right atrium by color-coded Doppler echocardiography. We are reporting the first case demonstrating the value of echocardiography in diagnosing a Denver shunt in the heart and shunt patency by color-coded Doppler shuntography.