Scimitar syndrome is a variant of partial anomalous pulmonary venous return with an aberrant vein, the Scimitar vein, draining the right lung to the inferior vena cava instead of the left atrium, resulting in a left-to-right shunt. The classic frontal radiographic finding, designated as "the scimitar sign", is of a scimitar (a Turkish sword) shaped density along the right cardiac border. The diagnosis can be made by echocardiography, and cardiac catheterisation remains the gold standard to assess the left-to-right shunt. However, the place of multimodal cardiac imaging by computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging is increasing. We report the case of a 26 year-old man presenting with chest pain during a brief panic attack, in whom scimitar syndrome was associated with a bicuspid aortic valve, a clinical association rarely reported in the literature. CT and MRI cardiac imaging was as accurate as echocardiography and hemodynamics, particularly for shunt quantification.
Keywords: Cardiac computed tomography; Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging; Cardiopathie congénitale; Congenital cardiac anomalies; Imagerie par résonance magnétique cardiaque; Scanner cardiaque; Scimitar syndrome; Syndrome de cimeterre; Transthoracic echocardiography; Échocardiographie transthoracique.
Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.