Cine magnetic resonance imaging for evaluation of congenital heart disease: role in pediatric cardiology compared with echocardiography and angiography.

Cine magnetic resonance imaging was used for preoperative and postoperative evaluation of 91 patients with congenital heart disease. Their ages ranged from 6 weeks to 14 years. The quality of study was excellent in 81% of the cases, in which it provided complete documentation of diagnostic features; substantial diagnostic information was provided in another 14%, and the study was nondiagnostic in only 5%. This technique was most useful for evaluating areas of the right ventricle (95%), great arteries (95%), vena cava (94%), and pulmonary venous system (91%). The anatomic delineation of these areas was comparable to that obtained by cineangiography and was superior to echocardiography, especially in postoperative patients. For complex venous anomalies, magnetic resonance imaging provided better anatomic details than did angiography or echocardiography. The capability of multiplanar imaging allows complex angled views through the desired planes of the heart and great vessels. Proper sedation is essential to obtain maximum diagnostic information. Our preliminary experience suggests that this new modality provides excellent anatomic information in infants and children with congenital cardiac defects and will play an increasing role in pediatric cardiac diagnosis.

Pediatric Doppler echocardiography 1987: major advances in technology.

The major advances in the capabilities of pediatric cardiologists to evaluate the heart by ultrasound that have occurred in the last 5 years have been reviewed. In addition to the new Doppler methods, the evolution of higher resolution echo techniques have provided a comprehensive means of evaluating the heart noninvasively. This information has relegated catheterization to a more therapeutic arena, leaving ultrasound as the major diagnostic technique for evaluation of congenital heart disease, both before and after birth.