Incremental value of transesophageal echocardiography in the evaluation of patients before percutaneous closure of atrial septal defects

Abstract

We have recently read with great interest the article by Chen et al. (1) entitled ‘‘Transcatheter device closure of atrial septal defects guided completely by transthoracic echocardiography: A single cardiac center experience with 152 cases’’ published in Anatol J Cardiol 2018; 20: 330-5. We recognize authors’ effort in the report describing the transcatheter device closure of atrial septal defects (ASDs) fully guided by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), which was a single-cardiac-center experience including 152 cases. On the other hand, we believe that there are some major drawbacks that need to be addressed here.