[The magnetic resonance tomography of complex congenital heart diseases in adults]

Abstract

An increasing number of patients with complex congenital heart disease reaches adulthood, because treatment and patient outcome have improved considerably in recent years. Monitoring of these patients requires both definition of cardiac anatomy and assessment of function with good reproducibility. Complications after surgical repair such as restenoses of pulmonary arteries after surgical repair of tetralogy of Fallot, ventricular hypertrophy, stenoses or leakage of baffles, or stenosis and aneurysms of anastomoses have to be detected at an early stage. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an excellent tool to monitor these patients because of its noninvasive nature, its good interstudy and interobserver reproducibility, and because it allows assessment of both cardiac anatomy and function. This paper reviews the current applications of MRI in complex congenital heart disease in adults.