LONG-TERM SURVIVAL IN AGED PATIENTS WITH CORRECTED TRANSPOSITION OF THE GREAT-ARTERIES

Corrected transposition of the great arteries is a rare condition, and few patients with this abnormality survive past 50 years of age because of associated congenital defects or the subsequent development of atrioventricular valvular insufficiency or heart block or both. We describe four men with uncomplicated C-TGA. Our patients are of interest for the following reasons: (a) their condition is very rare; (b) the diagnosis of C-TGA traditionally has been verified through invasive cardiac catheterization procedures; however, in our latest two patients, recently developed noninvasive diagnostic techniques played the decisive role in the diagnosis of C-TGA; (c) in these modalities, they presented as a "natural experimental model" that the right ventricle submitted to a high systemic pressure load is capable of increasing muscle mass over long-term adaptation. Our four patients illustrate that patients with C-TGA, even with the associated cardiac anomalies, may live a normal life span with proper management.