Ten patients with total and one with partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection were studied by two-dimensional Doppler color flow-mapping echocardiography. In cases of anomalous pulmonary venous drainage into the innominate vein through the vertical vein, flow away from the transducer was detected in the echo space behind the atria in the subxiphoid four-chamber approach. In the suprasternal approach, flow toward the transducer was detected at the junction of the vertical and innominate veins. In the case of an anomalous pulmonary vein connecting directly into the superior vena cava, an area of flow toward the transducer, which was triangular in shape, was detected in the dilated superior vena cava. In the two cases in which the pulmonary vein drained into the coronary sinus, the flow toward the transducer was observed at the ostium of the coronary sinus in the subxiphoid four-chamber view, and it appeared as if the blood flow was emerging from this point. In a case of the paracardiac type of total anomalous pulmonary venous connection with drainage into the posterior wall of the right atrium, the flow toward the transducer occurred higher in the right atrium than in the cases with drainage into the coronary sinus. In a case with the infradiaphragmatic type of total anomalous pulmonary venous connection, continuous flow toward the transducer, which passed through the diaphragm in an anomalous vessel, was detected from the subxiphoid area. The downward flow in the anomalous vessel changed to an upward flow at the site of drainage into the hepatic vein.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)