Retrograde Aortography in Corrected Transposition of the Great Vessels

In relation to congenital heart diseases the term "transposition" usually applies to abnormality of position of the aorta and pulmonary artery, transposition of the great vessels. However, the term "transposition" can also be applied to the situation when aorta and pulmonary artery arise from their proper physiological ventricles, but the ventricles are anatomically transposed. In this case the right ventricle has the internal anatomical characteristics of the left ventricle, the left ventricle those of the right (Fig. 1). This is commonly referred to as corrected transposition, although this is an inadequate descriptive term. The anatomical and clinical features as well as the surgical implications of this malformation have been described.^1-11 This abnormality is not as infrequent as formerly believed. The radiological characteristics of corrected transposition have either not been appreciated or have been misinterpreted as truncus arteriosus, tetralogy of Fallot, ventricular septal or other defects, depending on the symptomatology