Diagnosing infection of extracardiac conduit in children

Summary

Between August 1985 and July 1992, at our center, 142 Japanese children had an extracardiac conduit operation to reconstruct the right ventricular outflow tract. The study group consisted of 22 of these 142 children who had a persistent fever and whose serum was positive for acute-phase reactants after the operation. We present the diagnostic findings for 10 children with infection of an extracardiac conduit that had been placed to restore the continuity of the right ventricle-pulmonary artery. They were part of the group of 22 children who were followed over the past 7 years with blood cultures, echocardiography, and⁶⁷Ga imaging. All 10 developed a persistent fever and were seropositive for acute-phase reactants. Conduit infection was diagnosed in only 2 patients by the detection of vegetation on echocardiography and was diagnosed in 9 of the 10 patients by an abnormal⁶⁷Ga uptake in the area of the artificial vessels used to reconstruct the pulmonary artery. The present study compared the use of blood cultures, echocardiography, and⁶⁷Ga imaging in diagnosing an infection of the extracardiac conduit. The sensitivity of blood cultures in diagnosing an extracardiac conduit infection was 70% (7/10), and the specificity was 92% (1/12).⁶⁷Ga imaging showed a higher sensitivity than echocardiography in diagnosing infection of an extracardiac conduit.