Abstract：Objective: To probe the imaging characteristics of aortic left ventricular tunnel(ALVT) in color Doppler echocardiography(CDE). Methods: Seven patients with ALVT were examined by CDE, to find out the character of ALVT. All of the 7 patients underwent angiocardiography for correlation. Of them, 5 cases were confirmed by operation. Results: Five cases were accurately diagnosed by imaging character of CDE, 1 case was misdiagnosed as the left coronary artery left ventricular fistula, the other one was misdiagnosed as the aortic valve stenosis with insufficiency. The features of CDE image were obvious as follows: ①The parasternal long axis view of two-dimensional echocardiography(2DE) image on the front or back wall of aortic valve showed non-echo tubal cavity was connected with left ventricular outflow-tract. CDFI showed that blood flow sign entered into the non-echo cavity from left ventricular outflow-tract during systolic time, and vice versa during diastolic time. ②The parasternal short axis view of 2DE image showed semilunar echoless cavity between aortic sinus and aortic wall. CDFI showed blood flow signal in echoless cavity. ③Most patients associated with aortic valve hypoplasia and aortic valve insufficiency, half with mitral insufficiency and very few with ventricular septal defect. Conclusion: The feature of CDE image in ALVT was obvious. CDE was valuable especially in diagnosing ALVT, but it should be differented from coronary artery fistulas, aortic dissecting aneurysm and aortic valve insufficiency.
2006, Vol. 17 
