Internationale Zeitschrift für Herz-Kreislauf-Forschung

Multidetector Computer Tomography in Congenital Heart Disease

Claudia Pujol Salvador, Julia Lemmer, Farid Pouralikhan, Michael Porner, Vasiliki Trigas, Siegrun Mebus, Stefan Martinoff and Harald Kaemmerer

Multidetector Computer Tomography in Congenital Heart Disease

Objectives: Extracardiac pathology is common in patients with congenital heart disease. Multidetector computer tomography can be a useful tool for detection. To date, there are only scarce reports regarding “incidental“ non-cardiac findings during cardiac computer tomography. Aims of this study were to analyze indications, implementation, and timing of multidetector computer tomography in patients with congenital heart disease. Materials and methods: During 32 months, 195 patients were retrospectively included in our analysis. Type of congenital heart disease, timing of the procedure (preoperative, postoperative, follow-up, native), explored areas (thorax, cranium, abdomen, sternum, neck and extremities), and indications were disclosed. Results: During the study period, 250 scans were performed in 195 patients. Mean age was 23.0 ± 17.1 years (minimum 3 days, maximum 73 years); 48.2% were younger than 20 years. Almost 71% had undergone reparative cardiovascular surgery. Complex congenital heart disease (26.5%) and left-ventricular heart obstructions (22.5%) were the most common defects referred to computer tomography. In 19.5% of patients more than one scan was necessary. The tests were most performed in the postoperative/ postinterventional (36%) and long-term follow-up (30.4%) periods. Most indications focused on the thorax (55.5%), particularly when cardiovascular complications were suspected. Assessment of cerebral pathology was the second most frequent indication (25%). Final diagnosis was achieved in 94% of cases. Conclusions: Extracardiac pathology is frequent in patients with congenital heart disease, mainly in younger patients and with complex cardiac pathology. Multidetector computer tomography is a very useful tool when cardiovascular complications or cerebral pathology is suspected. Therefore, a good cooperation between radiologists and congenital cardiologists is mandatory.