General Remarks

CT imaging of pediatric cardiac disease

Kei Takase
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine

Abstract

　　Echocardiography has been regarded as an initial screening and diagnostic modality, and catheter-directed cardiac angiography has been recognized as the gold standard of congenital heart diseases. However complex cardiac anatomy including extracardiac structures is sometimes difficult to evaluate by echocardiography, and catheter angiography may have complications. The recent development of high spatial and temporal resolution MDCT has enabled assessment of detailed cardiac anatomy. Non-ECG gated CT allows evaluation of extracardiac vascular anomaly such as anomalous pulmonary venous return or major aortopulmonary collateral arteries with low radiation dose. Although the radiation dose is relatively high, ECG gated cardiac CT is useful in evaluating selected cases of adult type congenital heart disease. ECG gated CT is also efficacious in simulating cardiac interventional radiology by visualizing the course of venous structure, measuring vessel diameter resulting in a reduction of the risk and total fluoroscopic time during intervention. It is important to set up an adequate protocol of scanning to acquire optimal CT images considering the circulation of congenital heart diseases and radiation exposure.

Keywords：Cardiac CT, Congenital heart disease