Congenital Heart Disease: Role of CT and CMR

Although prenatal screening has improved enormously recently, congenital heart disease (CHD) is still prevalent. Clinicians encounter several challenges when designating the management strategy for a patient with simple or complex CHD. Traditional imaging modalities, consisting of chest X-ray, chest computed tomography, echocardiography, and conventional angiography, have assisted in the diagnosing and planning of palliative or curative techniques for CHD cases for many years. Following the outstanding development of  the  CT-scanners,  cardiovascular  CT angiography became a part of patient evaluation in cardiovascular disorders, including CHD. Moreover, in recent decades, cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging has developed tremendously, resulted in a more precise cardiac functional and morphological evaluation. In some entities, a comprehensive CMR examination may eliminate the need for repetitive echocardiographic assessments. It is especially of value in evaluation of CHD, in which most patients are irritable children.
In this session, we aimed to describe the cardiac CT-angiography and CMR protocols, indications, and findings in common CHDs.