Imaging in adults with congenital cardiac disease (ACCD)

Management of patients with congenital heart disease requires detailed info rmation on cardiac and great vessel morphology. In previous years, the diag nosis and the treatment of congenital malformations has often depended on c ardiac catherization, and in many institutions, cardiac catherization still remains the gold standard against which other modalities are measured. In the past decade, however, imaging methodologies have increasingly shifted t oward the use of less invasive and noninvasive techniques. Currently, echoc ardiography is the initial method of choice in evaluating the anatomy, espe cially in younger patients. Meanwhile, several newer imaging techniques lik e magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spiral or multislice computed tomogr aphy (CT) are in use. They offer extremely useful information about abnorma lities of the heart and great vessels as well as the assessment of cardiac anatomy and function. Echo, angiography, MRI and CT should be seen as compl imentary investigations in adult congenital heart disease.