CLINICAL PROGRESS Retrograde Arterial Catheterization of the Left Heart Experience with 500 Infants and Children

HISTORICALLY, retrograde catheteriza-tion of the arterial circulation appears to have been the first method employed in the study of the left heart. Cournand1 cites the physiologic studies of Chauveau and Marey. They recorded pressure tracings ob-tained from the left ventricle of the erect, unanesthetized horse in 1861.2 3 Almost 100 years later, in 1950, three groups of workers reported application of this ap-proach to man. Zimmerman, Scott, and Beck-er4 were first to publish. However, they were successful only in patients with aortic regurgi-tation, being unable to pass through the nor-mal aortic valve. Furthermore, one of their 11 patients succumbed from ventricular fibrilla-tion during the procedure and another died 4 days later. Limon, Rubio, and Bouchard5 were the first to establish this method as a safe, effective approach in man, allowing pas-sage of the catheter across the normal aortic valve in 17 patients without complications. Later in that year Sodi-Pallares 6 and his group confirmed Limon's success in 25 patients stud-From the Children's Hospital of Buffalo and th