title: What every radiologist should know about paediatric echocardiography.
abstract: Congenital heart defects (CHD) occur in less than one percent of all newborns. Echocardiography represents the imaging modality of choice for morphological and functional assessment. In childhood the different CHD types can be diagnosed trustfully and can be performed bedside. In the follow-up of CHD cross sectional imaging plays an important role and therefore it is essential for the radiologist to know the features, challenges and limitations of echocardiography. Within this review article a systematic approach for morphological and functional assessment of the heart will is given along with representative example images. In addition, typical echocardiographic findings in common CHD is presented. In older children, adolescents and grown-ups with CHD (GUCH) echocardiography suffers from limitations - partially due to skeletal deformations and lung emphysema. In particular right ventricular function assessment is not always possible by echocardiography. Therefore strengths and limitations of echocardiography will be discussed the role of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI) and cardiac computed tomography (cCT) emphasized.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Radiology, Department of Radiology, Medical University Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 34, A-8036 Graz, Austria. Electronic address: erich.sorantin@medunigraz.at.
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sorantin
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Medical University Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 34, A-8036 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Heinzl
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Cardiology; Children; Echocardiography; Heart defects congenital