X-ray study in infants of the first year of life who had congenital heart diseases: traditions, specific features, new capacities

The paper analyzes the experience with ultrafast computed tomography (CT) used for 4 years to examine 178 babies with complicated congenital heart diseases (CHD), admitted to A.N. Bakulev Research Center of Cardiovascular Surgery, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, for surgical treatment. It shows the comparative capacities of X-ray study, CT, and catheterized angiography in the diagnosis of CHD and concomitant lung diseases in patients of the first year of life in terms of the physiological and anatomic features of the course of disease. A complex of noninvasive radiation studies is shown to be of high informative value in evaluating the actual anatomy of complicated cardiac and pulmonary anomalies and in detecting the predictors of respiratory complications. The introduction of CT into the traditional algorithm of preoperative examination of patients with CHD has resulted in a considerable reduction in intracardiac diagnostic studies in neonates and infants of the first year of life.