Abstract
Cardiac imaging provides invaluable guidance at all stages of the management of congenital heart disease. Advances in the field of cardiac imaging have contributed immensely to improved outcomes of these patients. Echocardiography remains the first-line imaging modality. Non-invasive cross-sectional imaging using computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging supplements morphologic and physiologic evaluation and are being increasingly used for diagnosis and follow-up of patients with a malformed heart. Cardiac catheterization, being invasive, is mostly reserved for accurate assessment of hemodynamic status and percutaneous interventions. Simultaneous improvement in visualization techniques has amplified the information obtained from various imaging modalities. This review provides an overview of cardiac imaging and visualization techniques commonly used in the diagnosis and management of patients with congenital heart disease.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Molaie A, Abdinia B, Zakeri R, Talei A. Diagnostic value of chest X-ray in pediatric cardiovascular disease. Int J Pediatr. 2015;3:9–13.
Gupta SK. Clinical approach to a neonate with cyanosis. Indian J Pediatr. 2015;82:1050–60.
Edler I. The use of ultrasound as a diagnostic aid, and its effects on biological tissues. Continuous recording of the movements of various heart-structures using an ultrasound echo-method. Acta Medica Scand Suppl. 1961;370:7–65.
Buler BE, Rivero JM. The Transthoracic Examination, 1st ed. Massachusets: Jones and Bartlett publishers; 2011.
Ryan T, Armstrong WF. Feigenbaum’s Echocardiography, 8th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2018.
Heydarian HC, Kimball TR. Echocardiography: basic principles and imaging. In: Allen HD, Shaddy RE, Penny DJ, Feltes TF, Cetta F, editors. Moss and Adams Heart Disease in Infants, Children and Adolescents, 9th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2016. p. 303–38.
Pediatric and Fetal Echo Z-Score Calculators. Available at: parameterz.blogspot.com. Accessed 7 Sept 2019.
Anderson RH, Shirali G. Sequential segmental analysis. Ann Pediatr Cardiol. 2009;2:24–35.
Orwat S, Diller GP, Baumgartner H. Imaging of congenital heart disease in adults: choice of modalities. Eur Heart J Cardiovasc Imaging. 2014;15:6–17.
Grinberg AO, Park KW. Assessment of myocardial systolic function by TEE. Int Anesthesiol Clin. 2008;46:31–49.
Faletra FF, Pedrazzini G, Pasotti E, et al. 3D TEE during catheter-based interventions. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2014;7:292–308.
Simpson J, Lopez L, Acar P, et al. Three-dimensional echocardiography in congenital heart disease: an expert consensus document from the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging and the American Society of Echocardiography. Eur Heart J Cardiovasc Imaging. 2016;17:1071–97.
Jenkins C, Bricknell K, Hanekom L, Marwick TH. Reproducibility and accuracy of echocardiographic measurements of left ventricular parameters using real-time three-dimensional echocardiography. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2004;44:878–86.
Vaidyanathan B, Simpson JM, Kumar RK. Transesophageal echocardiography for device closure of atrial septal defects: case selection, planning, and procedural guidance. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2009;2:1238–42.
Gupta SK, Shetkar SS, Ramakrishnan S, Kothari SS. Saline contrast echocardiography in the era of multimodality imaging – importance of "bubbling it right". Echocardiography. 2015;32:1707–19.
Gupta SK, Juneja R, Anderson RH, Gulati GS, Devagorou V. Clarifying the anatomy and physiology of totally anomalous systemic venous connection. Ann Pediatr Cardiol. 2017;10:269–77.
Zhang YF, Zeng XL, Zhao EF, Lu HW. Diagnostic value of fetal echocardiography for congenital heart disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Medicine (Baltimore). 2015;94:e1759.
Viswanathan S, Kumar RK. Assessment of operability of congenital cardiac shunts with increased pulmonary vascular resistance. Catheter Cardiovasc Interv. 2008;71:665–70.
Gupta SK, Ramakrishnan S, Kothari SS, Saxena A, Airan B. Hemodynamics of large ventricular septal defect and coexisting chronic constrictive pericarditis masquerading as Eisenmenger’s syndrome. Cath Cardiovasc Interven. 2014;83:263–9.
Vargo TA. Cardiac catheterization: hemodynamic measurements. In: Garson Jr A, Bricker JT, Fisher DJ, Neish SR, editors. The Science and Practice of Pediatric Cardiology, 2nd ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins; 1998. p. 961–93.
Mullins CE. Cardiac Catheterization in Congenital Heart Disease: Pediatric and Adult. Malden: Blackwell; 2006.
Tricarico F, Hlavacek AM, Schoepf UJ, et al. Cardiovascular CT angiography in neonates and children: image quality and potential for radiation dose reduction with iterative image reconstruction techniques. Eur Radiol. 2013;23:1306–15.
Dey D, Slomka PJ, Berman DS. Achieving very low-dose radiation exposure in cardiac computed tomography, single-photon emission computed tomography, and positron emission tomography. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. 2014;7:723–34.
Siripornpitak S, Pornkul R, Khowsathit P, Layangool T, Promphan W, Pongpanich B. Cardiac CT angiography in children with congenital heart disease. Eur J Radiol. 2013;82:1067–82.
Gupta SK, Spicer DE, Anderson RH. A new low-cost method of virtual cardiac dissection of computed tomographic datasets. Ann Pediatr Cardiol. 2019;12:110–6.
Kramer CM, Barkhausen J, Flamm SD, Kim RJ, Nagel E. Standardized cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) protocols; Society for cardiovascular magnetic resonance board of trustees task force on standardized protocols. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson. 2008;10:35.
Fogel MA. Assessment of cardiac function by magnetic resonance imaging. Pediatr Cardiol. 2000;21:59–69.
Thompson RB, McVeigh ER. Fast measurement of intracardiac pressure differences with 2D breath-hold phase-contrast MRI. Magn Reson Med. 2003;49:1056–66.
Vahanian A, Alfieri O, Andreotti F, et al; Joint Task Force on the Management of Valvular Heart Disease of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS). Guidelines on the management of valvular heart disease (version 2012). Eur Heart J. 2012;109:2451–96.
Korperich H, Gieseke J, Barth P, et al. Flow volume and shunt quantification in pediatric congenital heart disease by real-time magnetic resonance velocity mapping: a validation study. Circulation. 2004;109:1987–93.
Masui T, Katayama M, Kobayashi S, et al. Gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography in the evaluation of congenital cardiovascular disease pre- and postoperative states in infants and children. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2000;12:1034–42.
Burchill LJ, Huang J, Tretter JT, et al. Non-invasive imaging in adult congenital heart disease. Circ Res. 2017;120:995–1014.
Vukicevic M, Mosadegh B, Min JK, Little SH. Cardiac 3D printing and its future directions. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2017;10:171–84.
Kappanayil M, Koneti NR, Kannan RR, Kottayil BP, Kumar K. Three-dimensional-printed cardiac prototypes aid surgical decision-making and preoperative planning in selected cases of complex congenital heart diseases: early experience and proof of concept in a resource-limited environment. Ann Pediatr Cardiol. 2017;10:117–25.
Cantinotti M, Valverde I, Kutty S. Three dimensional printed models in congenital heart disease. Int J Card Imaging. 2017;33:137–44.
Valverde I, Gomez-Ciriza G, Hussain T, et al. Three-dimensional printed models for surgical planning of complex congenital heart defects: an international multicentre study. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 2017;52:1139–48.
Gupta SK, Aggarwal A, Shaw M, et al. Clarifying the anatomy of common arterial trunk: a clinical study of 70 patients. Eur J Cardiovasc Imag. 2019. E-published online 19 Oct 2019. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jez255.
Gupta SK, Anderson RH. Virtual dissection: an alternative to surface-rendered virtual three-dimensional cardiac model. Ann Pediatr Cardiol. 2020;13:102–3.
Jone P, Haak A, Petri N, et al. Echocardiography-fluoroscopy fusion imaging for guidance of congenital and structural heart disease interventions. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2018.11.010.
Silva JNA, Southworth M, Raptis C, Silva J. Emerging applications of virtual reality in cardiovascular medicine. JACC Basic Transl Sci. 2018;3:420–30.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
SS prepared the initial draft of the manuscript. SKG reviewed and approved the manuscript. Dr. Rohit Manojkumar, Professor of Cardiology, PGIMER, Chandigarh is the guarantor for this paper.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
None.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Video 1
Trans-thoracic echocardiogram in apical four-chamber view showing dilated left ventricle. Increased diastolic dimension and less than normal reduction during systole indicate ventricular dysfunction. (MP4 897 kb)
Video 2
Trans-thoracic echocardiogram in parasternal short axis view showing origin of left main coronary artery from pulmonary artery with reversal of flow in left anterior descending artery (LAD) seen on color Doppler interrogation. (MP4 2180 kb)
Video 3
Trans-esophageal echocardiogram (TEE) in aortic short axis view at mid-esophageal level showing ASD shunting from left atrium to right atrium. Left-to-right shunt is depicted as blue flow as the TEE probe lies in the esophagus posterior to the heart. (MP4 5185 kb)
Video 4
Axial section producing four chamber view in fetal echocardiography, demonstrating normal size of all four cardiac chambers, normally functioning both atrio-ventricular (AV) valves and intact interventricular septum (IVS). (MP4 2817 kb)
Video 5
Right ventricular angiogram in AP cranial view using NIH catheter showing hypertrophied right ventricle and severe infundibular and valvular pulmonary stenosis. Bilateral confluent pulmonary arteries are well seen. (AVI 35847 kb)
Video 6
Left ventricular angiogram in LAO cranial view using pigtail catheter showing a large mal-aligned VSD (#) with aortic override. (AVI 18950 kb)
Video 7
Aortic root angiogram in LAO cranial view using pigtail catheter showing normal origin coronary arteries from left and right aortic sinuses. Mild aortic regurgitation is also present. (AVI 18694 kb)
Video 8
Descending thoracic aortogram in AP view using pigtail catheter shows contrast opacification of DTA. Two aorto-pulmonary collaterals are seen arising from DTA at T4-T5 level. (AVI 15621 kb)
Video 9
Descending thoracic aortogram in lateral view performed using multi-purpose catheter showing PDA between descending thoracic aorta and pulmonary artery. Note that the catheter has crossed the PDA from pulmonary end into the aorta. (AVI 8965 kb)
Video 10
Descending thoracic aortogram in lateral view performed using pigtail catheter placed via femoral artery. The ductal occluder is positioned well with no residual flow. (AVI 12549 kb)
Video 11
Magnetic resonance imaging in a patient with Ebstein anomaly. Four chamber view with dilated right atrium, displaced septal tricuspid leaflet and tricuspid valve regurgitation can be noted. Dilated atrialized portion of right ventricle can be appreciated (MP4 830 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sachdeva, S., Gupta, S.K. Imaging Modalities in Congenital Heart Disease. Indian J Pediatr 87, 385–397 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-020-03209-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-020-03209-y