Cardiac localization of transvascular bioptome using 2-dimensional echocardiography.

Two-dimensional (2-D) echocardiography was added to standard fluoroscopic localization of transvascular endomyocardial biopsy in 7 children with heart muscle disease whose ages were 6 months to 18 years. One left ventricular and 11 right ventricular biopsies were carried ot without complications using the fluoroscopic-echocardiographic technique. Two-dimensional echocardiographic monitoring has the advantages of reducing radiation exposure and providing anatomic information about intracardiac structures as well as bioptome localization. Lateral beam spread and reverberation artifacts represent potential problems with 2-D echocardiography, but they did not cause significant difficulties in this study.