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©2013 UpToDate ® Print Email Balloon test Angiographic images obtained during a balloon test performed prior to planned percutaneous pulmonic valve implantation (PPVI). The patient is a seven-year-old boy with an underlying diagnosis of an interrupted aortic arch and ventricular septal defect who had previously undergone a Ross-Konno-operation and two replacements of right ventricle to pulmonary artery conduits. The left panel shows an aortogram performed with a guide-wire positioned in the right ventricular outflow tract. Note the relatively distal origin of the left coronary artery. The right panel shows an aortogram obtained during high pressure balloon inflation in the right ventricular outflow tract to the maximum final expected diameter. Note that the left coronary artery does not fill with contrast. During balloon-testing, the patient experienced bradycardia with a junctional rhythm, which reverted to normal sinus rhythm upon deflation of the balloon. Due to the results of this balloon test, PPVI was not performed. Courtesy of Sohrab Fratz, MD