Contrast Use in Cardiac CTA Applications; Supplement to Applied Radiology: December 2006.
Gilkeson C.
Nearly 1 million people in the United States have documented congenital heart disease, while another 100,000 to 400,000 people have an undiagnosed congenital abnormality.1 Traditionally, invasive angiography was used to evaluate patients with congenital heart disease. Today, physicians increasingly turn to noninvasive methods, such as echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and, more recently, multi-slice computed tomography (CT).
The recognition of congenital heart disease on cardiac CT is becoming increasingly common, as the volume of such studies increases. A typical patient comes to the emergency room with chest pain or dyspnea and leaves with a diagnosis not of myocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism, or lung cancer, but, instead, of a previously undiagnosed congenital heart disease. Common congenital abnormalities visualized by cardiac CT include intracardiac shunts and anomalies of the aorta, pulmonary arteries, pulmonary veins, and coronary arteries. It is critical for those who interpret cardiac CT studies to be prepared to accurately recognize and report findings of congenital heart disease, not only for the purposes of diagnosis but also for treatment planning.