The tracheal sweep: novel use of tracheal landmark in echocardiography
to determine aortic arch sidedness
Abstract
Objective: Diagnosis of Aortic arch (AoA) anatomy is critical for
planning cardiac surgery/intervention and in diagnosing associated
congenital heart defects. AoA sidedness is traditionally diagnosed with
echocardiography as being contralateral to the direction of the first
brachiocephalic artery in suprasternal view, but this method can be
challenged by numerous anatomic variants and clinical conditions. The
objective of this study was to assess feasibility of trachea
visualization with echocardiography in pediatric patients, and using
this landmark to identify AoA sidedness and potential for double aortic
arch (DAA). Methods: A prospective study was performed on patients
<18 years old who were undergoing Chest CT/MRI to serve as
gold standard for confirming AoA anatomy. A right-to-left
echocardiographic sagittal sweep was performed from the suprasternal
notch and used to categorize 1) Left AoA = right SVC-trachea-AoA, 2)
Right AoA= SVC-AoA-trachea, 3) DAA = SVC-AoA-trachea-AoA. The proportion
of successful sweeps and diagnostic accuracy were calculated. Results:
100 consecutive patients were scanned (44% female; median age of 8.8
yr, range 2d–17.9 yr; median BSA 1.14 m 2, range
0.2–2.7; right AOA in 4%). Diagnosis of AoA sidedness was possible in
97% (95% CI: 94–100%, p < 0.01) and correct in 100% when
the trachea was seen. Conclusion: Tracheal imaging with echo is
reliable, easy, and reproducible method in patients of various sizes and
levels of acuity to define AoA sidedness.