Cardiovascular shunts: MR imaging evaluation.

Wang ZJ, Reddy GP, Gotway MB, Yeh BM, Higgins CB.
Department of Radiology, Box 0628, University of California, 505 Parnassus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94143-0628, USA.

Radiographics. 2003 Oct;23 Spec No:S181-94

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has become an important tool for the accurate and noninvasive assessment of congenital heart disease. Because more precise delineation of anatomy and evaluation of function can be obtained with MR imaging than with either echocardiography or angiography, MR imaging is frequently used to evaluate cardiovascular shunt lesions. It is essential that imaging specialists be able to recognize the MR imaging features of various kinds of shunts, including supracristal ventricular septal defect, atrioventricular septal defect, and partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection. MR imaging is particularly useful for evaluating shunt severity, which can be expressed quantitatively as the ratio of pulmonary flow to systemic flow. This ratio can be estimated accurately with the use of either volumetric cine MR imaging or velocity-encoded cine MR imaging. Copyright RSNA, 2003

Posted via PubMed for educational and discussion purposes only.
Link to PubMed Reference