VENTRICULAR SEPTAL DEFECT WITH A NOTE ON ACYANOTIC FALLOT'S TETRALOGY

Abstract

In reviewing all cases of congenital heart disease in which the diagnosis has been proved by means of cardiac catheterization at the National Heart Hospital and Brompton Hospital since 1948, we have been impressed with the infrequency with which cases of ventricular septal defect (V.S.D.) of the classical maladie de Roger type have been encountered. In the majority of cases sent to us with this label, the diagnosis proved wrong. On the other hand, most cases of V.S.D. were characterized by clinical features in no way covered by Roger's description, and these also had been frequently mislabelled. It is high time, therefore, that the clinical features of these two conditions (V.S.D., and its mild form that alone can be called the maladie de Roger) were reviewed.