Coronary Arteries in Childhood Heart Disease: Implications for Management of Young Adults

Abstract

Survival of patients with congenital heart defects has improved dramatically. Many will undergo interventional catheter or surgical procedures later in life. Others will develop atherosclerotic or post-surgical coronary heart disease. The coronary artery anatomy in patients with congenital heart disease differs substantially from that seen in the structurally normal heart. This has implications for diagnostic procedures as well as interventions. The unique epicardial course seen in some defects could impair interpretation of coronary angiograms. Interventional procedures, especially at the base of the heart, risk injuring unusually placed coronary arteries so that coronary artery anatomy must be delineated thoroughly prior to the procedure. In this review, we will describe the variants of coronary artery anatomy and their implications for interventional and surgical treatment and for sudden death during late follow-up in several types of congenital heart defects including: tetralogy of Fallot, truncus arteriosus, transposition of the great arteries, double outlet right ventricle, congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries and defects with functionally one ventricle. We will also discuss the coronary abnormalities seen in Kawasaki disease.