Abstract

Download the Issue @ a Glance podcast Subscribe to the EHJ Podcast ![Graphic][1] Thanks to modern medicine, more and more patients with congenital heart disease today reach adulthood,1 but nonetheless require require lifelong professional care.2–5 Imaging is fundamental to the lifelong care of these patients. Thus, the review entitled ‘ Imaging of congenital heart disease in adults ’ by Sonya Babu-Narayan from the Royal Brompton Hospital in London6 marks an interesting start to this issue. While echocardiography remains the first-line imaging tool, cross-sectional imaging with cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) or computed tomography (CT) provides complementary and invaluable information on cardiac and vascular anatomy and other intrathoracic structures commonly altered in such patients. Furthermore, cardiac MR provides quantification of cardiac function and vascular flow. As a result of these achievements, cardiac catheterization is mainly reserved for the measurement of pulmonary vascular resistance, ventricular end-diastolic pressure, and percutaneous interventions. Of note, there have been further advances in non-invasive imaging of congenital heart disease including advanced echocardiographic techniques, faster automated cardiac MR imaging (MRI), and a marked reduction in the required radiation of CT. Consequently, adults with congenital heart disease, who represent a truly heterogeneous population, benefit from appropriate application of multiple imaging modalities, if matched with the expertise of tertiary centres. The quantification of left ventricular function is equally important in patients with congenital heart disease as in those with cardiomyopathies and heart failure.7 Myocardial strain is a relatively novel principle based on speckle tracking echocardiography that is increasingly used to better characterize myocardial function in such patients.8 In a second review ‘ Myocardial strain imaging: how useful is it in clinical decision-making? ’ by Otto A. Smiseth from the Universitetssykehus in Oslo in Norway, the practical value of this modality is critically discussed.9 The … [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif

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