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Introduction: The Minimum Basic Data Set (MBDS) is the most used database in the National Health System. The objective of this study is to evaluate the quality, in terms of coding errors of the administrative variables of the MBDS in the Basque Country Health Service., Material and Methods: A retrospective, descriptive study by means of reviewing 768 clinical histories from 11 hospitals., Study Period: the year 2005. The data obtained in the clinical histories were considered comparison standard and the level of discrepancy with the MBDS was established. The administrative variable measured were: sex, dates of birth, admission, discharge and of the first intervention, admission type and circumstances at discharge, department and physician responsible at discharge. The χ(2) was used to measure the between-hospital variability of the percentage discrepancy between the clinical histories and the MBDS records., Results: There were 213,091 discharge reports analysed. The percentage errors in the MBDS varied between 0.7% in the sex variable and 24.9% in the physician responsible variable. The variability between hospitals was statistically significant (p=0.001). Good quality was observed in the records of the six variables: sex, date of birth, admission date, discharge date, admission type and medical department responsible. The records were lacking in the date of first intervention and the physician responsible variables., (Copyright © 2008 Sociedad Española de Calidad Asistencial. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.)

Transesophageal echocardiographic findings in right atrial infarction are described. In three patients with myocardial infarction of one or both ventricles, the association of right atrial myocardial infarction was suspected because of anatomic (two-dimensional) and hemodynamic (Doppler) alterations obtained from transesophageal images. Transesophageal interrogation may prove widely applicable in the evaluation of patients with suspected right atrial infarction.

A group of 20 patients with ventriculoatrial shunts placed as surgical treatment for hydrocephalus were evaluated for cardiac lesions, particularly of the tricuspid valve. Patients with histories of septic or thromboembolic events were excluded. In each patient a clinical history, complete physical examination, electrocardiogram, chest x-ray film and M-mode, two-dimensional and pulsed continuous wave and color-coded Doppler echocardiography were performed. Eight patients were found to have cardiac abnormalities including tricuspid valve insufficiency, tricuspid stenosis and insufficiency, and the catheter passing through the foramen ovale into the left atrium. These findings demonstrate that tricuspid valvular lesions are frequent in patients with ventriculoatrial shunts, and that periodic echocardiographic evaluation should be performed routinely.

Characteristics of flow through atrioventricular valves were analyzed by pulsed Doppler echocardiography (PDE) in 7 patients with either constrictive pericarditis or restrictive cardiomyopathy and 10 controls to determine the value of this technique in their differentiation. All patients were admitted with systemic venous congestion and underwent right and left heart catheterization. PDE variables considered included peak flow velocity (PV), acceleration time, peak velocity of the atrial component (PVA), PVA/PV quotient, duration of early diastolic fillings, deceleration of early diastolic filling, duration of diastolic flow and mean temporal velocity. Ventricular filling differed between patients and controls in that the former group was characterized by higher PV's, lower PVA's, higher deceleration and lower PVA/PV quotient. When we compared both patient groups we found a significant tendency toward higher PV's, faster deceleration and lower PVA/PV quotient in constrictive pericarditis.

Conventional Doppler techniques have been used for sometime, but are limited by personal skill and experience, as well as by the fact that it can sample only one specific cardiac site at a time. The introduction of color-coded Doppler flow imaging systems allows by using multiple sample volumes an immediate display of intracardiac blood flow, spatially-oriented and super-imposed in two-dimensional echocardiography images, that not only increase temporal resolution, but which integrates anatomic and functional analysis. Likewise, the objective visualization of abnormal jet lesions permits the application of continuous-wave Doppler echocardiography with a high veracity for derived pressure gradients. Color-coded Doppler echocardiography emerges as the most promising, simple and non-invasive technique for obtaining confident quantitative information in diverse cardiac pathologic conditions and research.

Calcification of the pulmonary valve is a uncommon condition. Non invasive diagnostic methods such as M-mode and two dimensional echocardiography have facilitated the identification of vegetations and calcifications on the pulmonary valve. Very few cases of isolated calcification on the pulmonary valve have been reported; a previous lesion of the valve almost always exists. The purpose of this communication is to report two cases with calcification of pulmonary valves without underlying pathology and to highlight the great utility of echocardiography in diagnosis and follow-up of such cases.

Characteristics of color-coded Doppler imaging combined with two-dimensional and M-mode echocardiography in six patients with systolic-diastolic murmurs are reported. PDA, congenital absence of pulmonary valve leaflets, ventricular septal defect and aortic regurgitation, two ruptured aneurysms of sinus of Valsalva, and a coronary fistula were identified and findings were corroborated in cardiac catheterization and/or surgery. Color-coded Doppler imaging increases the information of the echocardiographic method in differential diagnosis of these entities by characterizing flow in cardiac chambers more completely and by facilitating detection of associated defects.