Umbilical vessel cardiac catheterization and angiocardiography.

CONGENITAL CARDIAC DEFECTS are a major cause of death in the newborn. Fifteen to 20% of infants born with congenital heart disease succumb in the first week of life,1' 2 a period when clinical diagnosis is most difficult. Although prognosis is poor, some of these severely distressed infants can be saved if early diagnosis is followed by prompt palliative or curative operation. Lambert and associates2 and Rowe3 have emphasized the necessity of early cardiac catheterization and angiocardiography in the evaluation of these distressed newborns with congenital heart lesions. Sapin and associates,4 in 1963, reported the advantages of selective angiocardiography and retrograde aortography using the umbilical vessels in 10 infants with congenital heart disease. These authors suggested that umbilical vessel catheterization and angiocardiography may be an effective and safe diagnostic procedure in the first week of life. The present study is a further evaluation of this diagnostic technique in a group of 50 infants. With this larger group, more definitive statements can be made regarding the methods, effectiveness, advantages, limitations, and complications of this procedure.