title: Cardiovascular shunts: MR imaging evaluation.
abstract: Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has become an important tool for the accurate and noninvasive assessment of congenital heart disease. Because more precise delineation of anatomy and evaluation of function can be obtained with MR imaging than with either echocardiography or angiography, MR imaging is frequently used to evaluate cardiovascular shunt lesions. It is essential that imaging specialists be able to recognize the MR imaging features of various kinds of shunts, including supracristal ventricular septal defect, atrioventricular septal defect, and partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection. MR imaging is particularly useful for evaluating shunt severity, which can be expressed quantitatively as the ratio of pulmonary flow to systemic flow. This ratio can be estimated accurately with the use of either volumetric cine MR imaging or velocity-encoded cine MR imaging.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Box 0628, University of California, 505 Parnassus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94143-0628, USA.
authors.forename: Zhen J
authors.initials: ZJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Gautham P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.forename: Michael B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Gotway
authors.forename: Benjamin M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Yeh
authors.forename: Charles B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Higgins
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D004374:Ductus Arteriosus, Patent / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006344:Heart Septal Defects, Atrial / Q000175:diagnosis; D006345:Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D019028:Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011667:Pulmonary Veins / Q000002:abnormalities