Interatrial defect sizing by intracardiac and transesophageal echocardiography compared with fluoroscopic measurements in patients undergoing percutaneous transcatheter closure

The purpose of this study was to evaluate prospectively the feasibility and accuracy of using echocardiographic measurements by transesophageal and intracardiac echocardiography (TEE and ICE, respectively) for interatrial septal defect sizing during percutaneous transcatheter closure. Forty-two patients underwent balloon sizing of interatrial septal defects using TEE in 21 of them and ICE in the other half. These measurements were correlated with quantitative fluoroscopic analysis and evaluated for bias and agreement between methods using a Bland-Altman analysis. Echocardiographic measurements were obtained by ICE and TEE in all patients. An excellent correlation was found between TEE and quantitative fluoroscopy (r = 0.898; P < 0.001) and between ICE and quantitative fluoroscopy (r = 0.876; P < 0.001), with a significant agreement (P < 0.001) and minimal positive bias toward the echocardiographic measurements. Both TEE and ICE are excellent methods of interatrial defect sizing when compared with quantitative fluoroscopic measurements. (C) 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.