Cardiovascular imaging trends in congenital heart disease: A single center experience

BackgroundCardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and CT are available in the recent era at many pediatric cardiac centers.ObjectiveThe aim was to provide a contemporary description of diagnostic imaging trends for definition of congenital heart disease (CHD).MethodsEchocardiography, cardiac catheterization, cardiac MRI, and cardiac CT use in patients with congenital heart disease at a single institution was retrospectively recorded (2005–2012). Surgical procedures were recorded. Total and modality-specific rates were estimated by Poisson regression and compared. The median age, studies in patients aged >17 years, and referral diagnosis were tabulated for the last year of review.ResultsAn average of 11,940 cardiovascular diagnostic tests was performed annually. The number of total studies, echocardiograms, catheterizations, and surgical procedures, did not change significantly across time. Echocardiography comprised 95% to 97% of all studies performed during each year of review. The use of cardiac MRI (2%) and cardiac CT (1%) increased linearly (P < .001), and the use of diagnostic catheterization decreased (0.7%; P = .0005). The median age was 3 years for echocardiography, 15 years for MRI, 11 years for CT, and 3 years for catheterization. The percentage of patients aged >17 years was 9% for echocardiography, 33% for cardiac MRI, 29% for cardiac CT, and 8% for catheterization. Most patients undergoing CT, MRI, and diagnostic catheterization had moderate or complex CHD.ConclusionCardiac CT is used increasingly in the recent era for evaluation of CHD. The increased use of both cardiac CT and cardiac MRI are temporally associated with a decrease in diagnostic cardiac catheterization.