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(Circulation. 1963;28:1050.)
© 1963 American Heart Association, Inc.

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Persistent Truncus Arteriosus

A Clinical, Hemodynamic, and Autopsy Study of Nineteen Cases

RAJENDRA TANDON M.D.¹; ANNA J. HAUCK M.D.¹; ALEXANDER S. NADAS M.D.¹

¹ From the Sharon Cardiovascular Unit of the Children's Hospital Medical Center, and Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

The clinical, hemodynamic, and autopsy data on 19 patients with a diagnosis of persistent truncus arteriosus have been presented.

A proposed clinical classification, dividing the patients into types I and II only, with exclusion of type IV, provides a uniform clinical profile. The patients, as a rule, are small infants with a large left-to-right shunt, minimal cyanosis, wide pulse pressure, left or combined ventricular hypertrophy, and congestive heart failure, and resemble patients with a ventricular septal defect or patent ductus arteriosus.

At cardiac catheterization distinct but slight differences in pressures or saturations between pulmonary arteries and "ascending aorta" do not exclude the diagnosis of persistent truncus arteriosus.

The prognosis is uniformly poor. Most infants die in congestive heart failure within the first 6 months of life, others develop pulmonary vascular obstructive disease in later years.