Intracardiac right-to-left shunts demonstrated by two-dimensional echocardiography after peripheral vein injection.

venous injections ofdextrose 5 per cent in water, for the detection and localisation of atrial and ventricular right-to-left shunts was evaluated in 70 adult patients. Based on their catheterisation data, 20 patients had a shunt at atrial level (group 1) and 14 patients a ventricular septal defect (group 2). Thirty-six patients without a shunt by oximetry served as controls. Echo contrast could not be detected in the left-sided cardiac cavities in any of the control patients. In 11 of the 15 patients with an uncomplicated atrial septal defect of the secundum type, echo