Direction, location, and size of shunt flow in congenital heart disease evaluated by ECG-gated multislice computed tomography.
OBJECTIVE
To demonstrate the utility of multislice computed tomography (MSCT) in the evaluation of direction, location, and size of shunt flow in congenital heart disease.


BACKGROUND
Transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging, and conventional angiography has been used to evaluate congenital heart disease; however, some are invasive and some do not provide accurate information about the spatial relationship to other organs.


METHODS
Three patients with typical presentation of ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect, and patent ductus arteriosus were recruited. Enhanced MSCT (Light Speed Ultra 16, General Electric) was performed with a 1.25-mm slice thickness, helical pitch 3.25. Following intravenous injection of 100 ml of iodinated contrast material (350 mg I/ml) at a rate of 3 ml/s, CT scanning was performed with retrospective ECG-gated reconstruction at 5 s and 30 s after injection.


RESULTS
In all cases the information of direction, location, and size of shunt flow including left-to-right and right-to-left shunt with spatial relationship to other organs could be obtained non-invasively.


CONCLUSIONS
ECG-gated MSCT is a useful tool to evaluate congenital heart diseases with shunts.
Funabashi
Nobusada
N
Asano
Miki
M
Sekine
Tai
T
Nakayama
Takashi
T
Komuro
Issei
I
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004108:Dilatation, Pathologic; D004374:Ductus Arteriosus, Patent / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000473:pathology; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*