Ventricular Septal Defect

Ventricular septal defects are the most frequent congenital cardiac malformation. According to their location, four different types of defects are differentiated including subarterial, perimembranous, inlet and muscular defects. Echocardiographic description of the localization and extension of VSDs always requires the application of various planes. Colour Doppler echocardiography is specifically helpful in the visualization of muscular defects. Pulsed wave and continuous wave Doppler provide the possibility to quantify direction, maximal velocity and duration of shunting across the defect. Application of the modified Bernoulli equation allows to calculate the pressure gradient between both ventricles and to determine the systolic right ventricular and pulmonary arterial pressure noninvasively.