The Gerbode Defect

The Gerbode Defect isn’t an Atrial Septal Defect, though it acts like one. It isn’t a Ventricular Septal Defect either, but it acts like one of those, too. The Gerbode Defect is a connection between the Left Ventricle and The Right Atrium. This is anatomically possible because the normal tricuspid valve is more apically displaced than the mitral valve. The large systolic pressure gradient between the left ventricle and the right atrium would expectedly result in an unmistakeable high velocity systolic Doppler flow signal with the jet directly up and down in the right atrium