Left retrograde cardioangiography: its diagnostic value in acquired and congenital heart disease.

Recent advances in cardiac surgery have made necessary the development of more accurate diagnostic tests for certain acquired and complex congenital heart lesions. We have found left retrograde cardioangiography the most reliable means of diagnosis for both aortic and mitral valvular disease. It has proved useful also in certain cases of congenital heart disease, particularly intracardiac and extracardiac left-to-right shunts. In this paper details of the technic employed at the University of Minnesota Hospitals will be given. In addition, the observations will be correlated with surgical data for patients who have been operated upon to date. Information concerning the relative diagnostic accuracy of conventional roentgenography will be included. History In 1933 Reboul and Racine (1) reported a technic for direct needle puncture of the left ventricle and injection of contrast material. In 1936 Nuvoli (2) opacified an aneurysm of the ascending aorta in a patient by this procedure. Ponsdomenech and Nunez (3...