[Diagnosis of hypoplasia of the heart ventricles: role of morphometry and morphology in its assessment].

Abstract

The article deals with the results of the study of the quantitative anatomy and morphology of hypoplastic ventricles. The object of study were 28 specimens of the heart: 15 with hypoplasia of the left ventricle and 13 with hypoplasia of the right ventricle. The control group was composed of 10 specimens of normal hearts. Morphometry was conducted in all of the 28 specimens. At the same time angiocardiometry and calculations of the volume characteristics of the ventricles were undertaken in the diagnosis of hypoplasia of the right ventricle. The morphometric criteria of hypoplasia of the heart ventricles and their morphological variants were determined as a result. It was found that the lineal characteristics of the heart yielded sufficient information both for the diagnosis of hypoplasia and for determining its degree. Morphometry showed that constant ratios exist between the diameters of the atrioventricular valves and the lineal sizes of the ventricles in normal and pathological hearts. Knowledge of the aforesaid is of much practical importance because having determined the sizes of the atrioventricular valves during echocardiography one may calculate all linear characteristics of the heart and evaluate the sizes of the ventricles by means of the quantitative criteria. The article gives the method of such calculation, while its results are evidence of the high precision of the suggested constants.