Two-dimensional and three-dimensional echocardiographic assessment of right ventricular function in patients with pectus excavatum, before and after surgery

Pectus excavatum(PE)is one of the most common congenital chest wall deformities observed in clinical practice and has an estimated prevalence in the range of one in 500 to one in 1000 a mong children;it is characterized by posterior displacement of the inferior sternum and the cartilaginous-rib attachments.[1] The physiological symptoms and impairment which arise due to PE vary,as the depression of the anterior chest wall compresses the right heart chambers,causing various morphological and functional cardiac alterations.Some patients with PE experience progressive worsening of cardiopulmonary function with increasing age.[2]