Cardiac CTA: congenital heart disease

Excerpt

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a relatively common problem with an incidence of approximately five to 12 per 1,000 live births [1]. Technologic advances in multislice CT have led to it being added to the armamentarium for imaging CHD [2‐5]. These advancements include: (a) high spatial resolution enabling visualization of small structures; (b) high temporal resolution, which minimizes respiratory and cardiac motion artifacts; and (c) isotropic voxels, allowing for reconstructions with excellent resolution. The major and substantial limitations are the use of ionizing radiation, the need for iodinated intravenous contrast agent, and the lack of flow information. Therefore, CT is usually an ancillary study to echocardiography or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, recognition of the CT findings in CHD is important because they may be encountered incidentally during CT examinations performed for other clinical indications. …