The role of MDCT in the assessment of cardiac and extra-cardiac vascular defects among Egyptian children with tetralogy of Fallot and its surgical implementation

Abstract

BackgroundTetralogy of Fallot (TOF) is considered the most common form of cyanotic congenital heart diseases (CHD), accounting for about 10% of cases. It includes four main cardiac defects, in addition to various extra-cardiac anomalies.AimThis study aimed to evaluate cardiac and extra-cardiac vascular defects associated with TOF among Egyptian children, regarding frequency and types with assessment of multi-slice or multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) role in their diagnosis. Definitely, full detection of these vascular anomalies has utmost importance when evaluating such patients particularly before surgical intervention.MethodsThis study included 60 pediatric patients diagnosed as TOF, who underwent MDCT examination in our institute during period of 6 months from (March to September 2020), to confirm their trans-thoracic echocardiography (TTE) findings and detect other vascular abnormalities which cannot be precisely detected with TTE before their surgical interventions.ResultsThe incidence of different extra-cardiac vascular defects diagnosed by MDCT among our patients was 85% which was significantly higher than that detected by TTE (55%). Moreover, MDCT was superior to TTE assessment as regards its diagnostic accuracy (96.6% vs. 80%), sensitivity (98% vs. 76.9%), and specificity (88.9% vs. 85.7%), in addition to both positive and negative predictive values. The most common anomalies detected were affecting the pulmonary artery (80%), followed by aorto-pulmonary vessels (45%), then aortic artery (40%), coronary arteries (20%), and lastly vena cava connection (6.7%). Patients’ demographic characteristics and clinical presentations were also presented.ConclusionThis study confirmed that many extra-cardiac vascular defects are commonly associating cardiac lesions in TOF and emphasizing the great value of MDCT in their diagnosis. Certainly, proper detection of these anomalies will help decision-making during preoperative evaluation, corrective interventions, and further management of these cases.