TOTAL ANOMALOUS PULMONARY VEIN DRAINAGE IN AN ADULT DIAGNOSED BY HELICAL COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY

A 41-year-old man visited our hospital with the complaint of palpitati on by atrial flutter. He was finally diagnosed as total anomalous pulm onary vein drainage by helical computed tomography (CT). This case is very unusual due to the lack of symptoms until the age of 41. The abse nce of pulmonary artery stenosis, and the presence of atrial septal de fect providing sufficient right to left shunt flow to maintain the out put of left ventricle are some of the reasons to explain the lack of s ymptoms and very slight impact on daily life. Helical CT, in particula r 3-dimensional imaging, is very useful in diagnosing complicated card iovascular deformation as in this case.