Value of MRI in the diagnosis of complex congenital heart disease

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the value of MRI in the diagnosis of complex congenital heart disease.Methods Twenty-one patients with complex congenital heart disease,who had undergone MRI examination were enrolled in this research.The MRI data of every patient was analyzed and abnormalities of anatomy was counted by two experienced cardiovascular radiologist.Surgical diagnosis (17 cases) or consistent diagnosis (4 cases) of ultrasonic,cardiac catheter and cardiac CT was regarded as reference standards.Accuracy and misdiagnosis rate were obtained.Results Twenty-one patients had 63 main abnormalities,61 malformations was found by MRI examination,the diagnostic accuracy was 96.8％,and the misdiagnosis rate was 4.8％ (1 atrial septal defect (ASD) and 1 major aorta pulmonary collateral arteries (MAPCAS) were missed,1 arterialduct stump was misdiagnosed as patent ductus arteriosus (PDA).Conclusion MRI has excellent diagnosticaccuracy on complex congenital heart disease,it is another good noninvasive cardiac examination method beside ultrasonic. Key words: Congenital heart disease; Magnetic resonance imaging; Heart