CT in pediatric congenital heart disease

Abstract

Congenital heart disease includes an extremely diverse spectrum of congenitally malformed hearts leading to a variety of different hemodynamic consequences. The disease is often associated with anomalies of great vessels and airways and infrequently with those of other systems. Although the evaluation of simple defects, such as atrial septal defect (ASD) and ventricular septal defect (VSD), can be usually completed with echocardiography, supplementary imaging studies, such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and cardiac catheterization, are often required for the accurate diagnosis and optimal treatment of more complex defects. Among those supplementary imaging studies, the role of CT has greatly increased, thanks to recent technical evolutions (Goo et al., Radiographics 23:S147-S165, 2003; Goo et al., Int J Cardiovasc Imaging 21:347-365, 2005; Leschka et al., Radiographics 27:829-846, 2007; Sena and Goo, Computed tomography in congenital heart disease. In: Donoghue V (ed), Radiological imaging of the neonatal chest, 2nd ed, Berlin: Springer, pp 319-346, 2008;Goo, Korean J Radiol 11:4-18, 2010; Goo, Radiol Clin North Am, 49:997-1010, 2011; Goo, CT in pediatric heart disease. In: Saremi F, Achenbach S, Arbustini E, Narula J (eds), Revisiting cardiac anatomy: a computed-tomography-based atlas and reference, Oxford: Wiley, pp 76-84, 2011; Goo, Congenital heart disease in the pediatric population. In: Abramson S (ed), The complete guide to cardiac CT, New York: McGraw-Hill, pp 503-535, 2012). In this chapter, scan techniques, radiation dose reduction techniques, and clinical applications of pediatric cardiac CT for congenital heart disease are comprehensively reviewed. Up-to-date knowledge and information on these topics, such as intracardiac, four-dimensional airway, and dual-energy evaluations, are included to provide radiologists, technologists, cardiologists, and cardiac surgeons with the contemporary status of pediatric cardiac CT.