Two-dimensional echocardiography and color Doppler imaging in patients with systolic-diastolic murmurs.

Characteristics of color-coded Doppler imaging combined with two-dimensional and M-mode echocardiography in six patients with systolic-diastolic murmurs are reported. PDA, congenital absence of pulmonary valve leaflets, ventricular septal defect and aortic regurgitation, two ruptured aneurysms of sinus of Valsalva, and a coronary fistula were identified and findings were corroborated in cardiac catheterization and/or surgery. Color-coded Doppler imaging increases the information of the echocardiographic method in differential diagnosis of these entities by characterizing flow in cardiac chambers more completely and by facilitating detection of associated defects.