Volume helical shuttle of high-definition CT in congenital heart disease: preliminary study

Objective: To assess the clinical value of volume helical shuttle (VHS) of high definition CT (HDCT) in the diagnosis of congenital heart disease (CHD). Methods: Forty-three patients suffering from CHD were examined with VHS of HDCT and echocardiography (ECHO). Twenty-four patients (21 children, 3 adults) received surgery. Based on surgical data,the diagnostic accuracy of CHD by VHS of HDCT was compared with that by ECHO with respect to the intra-cardiac lesion, extra-cardiac lesion and hemodynamics. The visibility of the origin and proximal course of coronary arteries was also evaluated on VHS. CT effective doses were calculated,using mSv =DLP × K. Results: Thirty-six intra-cardiac deformities were found by operation, and the diagnostic accuracy of both VSH and ECHO were 100.0% (36/36). VHS successfully detected 42 of 44 (95.4%) cardiac-vascular connection and large vascular deformities, whereas ECHO only detected 26 (59.1% ). The right-to-left shunt and left-to-right shunt of septal defects revealed by VHS were 5 and 6 patients respectively, which all coincided with the results of ECHO.Fourteen bi-directional shunt of septal defects were detected by ECHO, and 13 of them were diagnosed as right-to-left shunt by HDCT except an illegibility in 1 patient. The origin and proximal course of coronary arteries were all visible on VHS. Effective dose for children was (3.38 ± 1.86) mSv, and for adults was (10.27 ± 2.59) mSv. Conclusions: VHS of HDCT scan is advantageous in the diagnosis of CHD. It can depict the intra- and extra- cardiac structures as well as coronary arteries and provide hemodynamic information. (authors)