Total anomalous pulmonary veins to the portal vein. Value of multislice CT angiography. Report of three cases

We present three female patients with infracardiac total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC) with the portal vein. Angio CT scan reconstructions and a correlation be- tween tomographic and echocardiographic findings were conducted. Multi-slice angio CT scan has been a valuable tool for the study of vessels in children with congenital heart disease. It is performed rapidly and it obtains high quality images, showing the vessels and the adjacent organs, which supply excellent information. The term TAPVC includes a group of malformations in which the four pulmonary veins connect in such a way that the arterialized blood in the lungs drains into the right atrium, either directly or by way of tributary veins. Thus, systemic and pulmonary blood mix in the right atrium; and atrial septal defect must exist in order for patients to survive. These malformations represent 0.4 to 2.0 % of all congenital heart diseases, with an incidence of 6.8 patients in every 100,000 births. Sixty eight percent of the cases are diagnosed in newborns, which indicates that most patients are symptomatic early in life. The infracardiac TAPVC represent 15 to 25% of all TAPVC