title: Role of imaging in penetrating and blunt traumatic injury to the heart.
abstract: Cardiac injury due to blunt or penetrating chest trauma is common and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Understanding the mechanisms, types, and complications of cardiac injuries and the roles of various imaging modalities in characterizing them is important for appropriate diagnosis and treatment. These injuries have not been well documented at imaging, but there are now fast and accurate methods for evaluating the heart and associated mediastinal structures. The authors review the broad spectrum of injuries that can result from blunt or penetrating trauma to the chest, as well as the imaging modalities commonly used in the acute trauma setting for evaluation of the heart and mediastinal structures. A pictorial review of both common and, to date, rarely documented cardiac injuries imaged with a variety of modalities is also presented. While many imaging modalities are available, the authors demonstrate the value of multidetector computed tomography (CT) for the initial evaluation of patients with blunt or penetrating chest trauma. With the advent of multidetector CT, imaging of cardiac injury has increased and accurate identification of these rare but potentially lethal injuries has become paramount for improving survival. Selection of the most appropriate modality for evaluation and recognition of the imaging findings in cardiac injuries in the acute trauma setting is important to expedite treatment and improve survival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Vancouver General Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Co
authors.forename: Charlotte J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Yong-Hing
authors.forename: Sandro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Galea-Soler
authors.forename: Balazs
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ruzsics
authors.forename: U Joseph
authors.initials: UJ
authors.lastname: Schoepf
authors.forename: Amr
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ajlan
authors.forename: Amr
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aljan
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Farand
authors.forename: Savvas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nicolaou
mesh_terms: D006335:Heart Injuries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014950:Wounds, Penetrating / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*