Double outlet left ventricle: diagnosis with magnetic resonance imaging

A complex congenital cardiac malformation in a female patient was evaluated several times by angiocardiography and echocardiography in childhood but a definite diagnosis was not established. Segmental analysis of the heart and the great vessels by magnetic resonance imaging when the patient was 34, however, showed a double outlet left ventricle in which the aorta was situated anterior to and to the left of the pulmonary trunk and an associated subaortic ventricular septal defect with pulmonary valve stenosis. This is the first time that this extremely rare cardiac malformation has been diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging.