Assessment Of The Effctiveness of Magnetic Resonance Imaging In The Diagnosis Of Congental Heart Disease

Assessment of the Effectiveness of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Diagnosis of Congenital HeartTo evaluate the usefulness of the currently available MRI techniques in the diagnosis of CHD in comparison to the standard tools of diagnosis, mainly the echocardiography, 25 patients with different types of CHD were studied. Patients were 16 females and 9 males with ages ranging from 1day and 44 years old (mean 7.4 years, SD 12.25). In addition to clinical examination, chest X-ray and ECG, all patients underwent conventional transthoracic echocardiographic study, and cardiac MRI. 15 patients underwent angiocardiography.MRI gives a detailed anatomical description of the heart and great vessels which was found to be useful to different degrees in diagnosis of different congenital heart lesions; it was found superior to echo in the diagnosis and evaluation of extra cardiac lesions such as:Great vessel abnormalitiesSystemic venous return abnormalities.Anomalous pulmonary venous drainage.Abnormal collateralsSurgical vascular connections and baffles.MRI is considered as effective as echo in the diagnosis of intracardiac malformations as ASD, VSD and AV canal defects, but echo remains superior in the detection of small defects, as well as in the description of normal valvular structure.