Biplane Axial Angiography in Congenital Heart Disease

Abstract

Cardiac angiography remains the definitive method for diagnosis in most infants and children with significant congenital heart disease. The development of X-ray equipment permitting simultaneous biplane imaging of the heart has led to tremendous improvements in the ability to define complex cardiac anatomy. The use of angled projections and emergence of the concept of axial angiography has resolved the problems and limitations of foreshortening, overlap, and superimposition that are inherent in conventional cardiac imaging. Clearly, axial angiography has opened a new era of angiographic investigation. By current standards, failure to use angulated views represents a serious deficiency in the angiographic study of congenital heart disease.