TEE image acquisition
Both 2D-TEE and 3D-TEE images were acquired by the GE Vivid E9 color
Doppler platform (GE Vingmed Ultrasound AS, Horten, Norway) equipped
with a 6VT transesophageal phased array probe during the procedure with
the patients under anesthesia. Obtain two dimensional gray images of
ASDs in 5 cardiac cycles when 2D-TEE clearly showed the cardiac defects
in different planes from four-chamber (0。), short
axis (45°), and bicaval (110°) view at mid-esophageal level. After which
the 4D zoom function was applied to get the 3D-TEE images. Once the 4D
mode was entered, 5 continuous root cycles volume images of the ASD were
stored under single-beat mode. The desired 3D-TEE images should have
completely dark blood pool and bright myocardial tissue with minimized
noise in the blood pool and at the periphery of the data set. All the
2D-TEE and 3D-TEE images were exported to the EchoPAC workstation (GE
Healthcare, WI) anonymously and the 3D-TEE images were converted to
standard digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) format
(Fig. 1A ).