Right ventricular abnormalities mimicking right ventricular dysplasia in pectus excavatum

Cardiomyopathies, ischemic heart disease, RV overload, congenital diseases have been reported as a possible cause of RV morphological abnormalities similar to those reported in RV dysplasia. In order to evaluate the influence of pectus excavatum (PE) on RV morphology at cross-sectional echocardiography, we studied 28 subjects (23 males, 5 females, mean age 26 ± 11 years) with various degrees of PE and 20 control subjects (15 males, 5 females, mean age 29 ± 6 years). One or more RV abnormalities were detected in 21/28 subjects with PE, and only in 4/20 controls (p = 0.001). The RV abnormalities more frequent in PE than in controls were: apical bulging (13/28 versus 3/20; p = 0.02) and global RV dilatation (13/28 veruss 3/20; p <0.03). Mitral valve prolapse was also more frequent in patients with PE than in controls (14/28 versus 2/20; p <0.002). Ventricular ectopic beats at 24 hour Holter monitoring were more frequent in subjects with PE than in controls (25/28 versus 5/20; p <0.001), but ventricular tachycardia was never observed.