ABSTRACT
Congenital heart diseases are the most common congenital abnormalities of development. In general, echocardiography and cardiac catheter angiography are considered the gold standard for the evaluation of congenital heart disease. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging has become an important supplementary imaging modality because of its ability to provide an accurate morphological and functional evaluation. The role of cardiac computed tomography in the imaging of patients with congenital heart disease is becoming increasingly more important due to the development of low radiation dose protocols and improvements in the spatial and temporal resolution. In the preoperative depiction and follow-up after surgical repair of congenital heart diseases, cardiac computed tomography provides detailed information of the heart, the venous and arterial pulmonary circulation as well as systemic arteries. This article reviews the technical aspects of cardiac CT and the modification of examination protocols according to the expected pathology and patient age. The potentials and limitations of the various radiation dose reduction strategies are outlined.
Subject(s)
Heart Defects, Congenital/diagnostic imaging , Radiographic Image Enhancement/methods , Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methods , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , HumansABSTRACT
Cardiac CT has evolved to a robust and accurate imaging modality in the cardiac diagnostic armamentarium. However, technical developments had been accompanied with an overall increase in radiation exposure. In the last years, several technical developments and algorithms aimed at the reduction of radiation exposure in cardiac CT. The most relevant dose reduction strategies will be highlighted in this article including appropriate indications for cardiac CT, different ECG synchronization techniques, reduction of tube voltage, and high-pitch CT studies.
Subject(s)
Coronary Angiography/methods , Coronary Disease/diagnostic imaging , Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods , Radiation Dosage , Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methods , Body Burden , HumansABSTRACT
Sialolipoma is a relatively new and rare variant of lipoma of the salivary glands characterized by the combination of classical lipoma morphology with non-neoplastic ductulo-acinary salivary tissue components. Including the presented case, 27 sialolipomas, 14 of them localized in the parotid gland, have been published. We describe the clinical, radiological and pathomorphological characteristics of a parotid sialolipoma in a 43-year-old man.
