Abstract
Interventional therapy for congenital and structural heart diseases has become more and more popular nowadays. Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) has been successfully used for guiding the procedure but requires general anesthesia. Intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) uses a miniaturized ultrasound tipped catheter which is placed in the heart to obtain the image. Imaging with ICE has evolved from cross-sectional imaging using a rotating transducer (similar to intravascular ultrasound) to sector-based imaging using a phased-array transducer. Phased-array ICE has many advantages over rotational ICE including a greater frequency range, greater depth of field, steerability, and the possibility of acquiring Doppler and color flow imaging. With their steerability, phased-array catheters can be easily advanced and positioned through short sheaths rather than through long guide sheaths. The AcuNav (Siemens Medical) phased-array ICE was first introduced in Taiwan in December 2004. In our experience, ICE can provide excellent images for device closure of ASD, VSD, ruptured sinus Valsalva aneurysm and transseptal puncture eliminating the need of general anesthesia.
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