Ultrasound has become a valuable tool for making non-invasive physiological measurements that are clinically important, one of which is detection of anatomic shunts using saline contrast echocardiography. Right-to-left intrapulmonary and intracardiac shunts are clinically relevant for two reasons. First, they allow deoxygenated blood to mix with oxygenated blood, thereby reducing the overall ef...

This report presents a new, simple and reliable method of quantitating left-to-right shunts from arterial dilution curves. When indicator (e.g., indocyanine green) is injected centrally (right ventricle or pulmonary artery) and blood is withdrawn rapidly from either the aorta or other central systemic artery, in the presence of a left-to-right shunt the recorded indicator-dilution curve usually...