Sizing of atrial septal defects by intracardiac echocardiography for device closures

Transcatheter closure of a secundum atrial septal defect (ASD) has become an effective method for surgical treatment. In this study, we evaluated the feasibility and accuracy of intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) for sizing ASDs compared with conventional methods.

Between January 2004 and December 2006, 270 patients underwent transcatheter closure of secundum ASD by using septal occluders. For 142 patients, the procedure was guided by transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), and for 128 patients by ICE. We compared the maximal diameters of the ASDs obtained during angiocardiography, transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), ICE, and TEE with balloon-stretched sizes ascertained by using a sizing plate.

ASD diameters measured with the sizing plate were significantly correlated with those measured with ICE (r = 0.963), TEE (r = 0.912), angiography (r = 0.88), and TTE (r = 0.85). The predicted stretched diameter of the ASDs, i.e. (nonstretched diameter measured with ICE x 1.07) + 3.23 mm, agreed well with that measured by using a sizing plate (Ri = 0.974).

ASD diameters measured with ICE correlated with sizing-plate measurements better than those determined with TEE, angiography or TTE.