Noninvasive cardiovascular imaging, including echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance, and computed tomography, plays a central role in the assessment and management of congenital heart disease.
Provides an overview of the applications, strengths, and pitfalls of echocardiography, cardiac MRI, and cardiac CT in the management of adult congenital heart disease.
Multimodality cardiovascular imaging plays a central role in caring for patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). CHD clinicians and scientists are interested not only in cardiac morphology but also in the maladaptive ventricular responses and extracellular changes predisposing to adverse outcomes in this population. Expertise in the applications, strengths, and pitfalls of these cardiovascular imaging techniques as they relate to CHD is essential. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of cardiovascular imaging in CHD. We focus on the role of 3 widely used noninvasive imaging techniques in CHD-echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, and cardiac computed tomography. Consideration is given to the common goals of cardiac imaging in CHD, including assessment of structural and residual heart disease before and after surgery, quantification of ventricular volume and function, stress imaging, shunt quantification, and tissue characterization. Extracardiac imaging is highlighted as an increasingly important aspect of CHD care.
Burchill et al. (Thu,) conducted a review in Adult Congenital Heart Disease. Noninvasive cardiovascular imaging was evaluated. Noninvasive cardiovascular imaging, including echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance, and computed tomography, plays a central role in the assessment and management of congenital heart disease.