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Updated: Jun 12, 2026
Hemodynamic Precision in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit using Targeted Neonatal Echocardiography
Published on: January 27, 2023
Low-dose prospective ECG-triggering dual-source CT angiography in infants and children with complex congenital heart
Zhaoping Cheng1, Ximing Wang, Yanhua Duan
1Shandong Medical Imaging Research Institute, Shandong University, No.324, Jingwu Road, Jinan, Shandong, 250021, China.
Objective:
To explore the clinical value of low-dose prospective ECG-triggering dual-source CT (DSCT) angiography in infants and children with complex congenital heart disease (CHD) compared with transthoracic echocardiography (TTE).
Methods:
Thirty-five patients (mean age: 16 months, range: 2 months to 6 years; male 15; mean weight: 12 kg) underwent low-dose prospective ECG-triggering DSCT angiography and TTE. Surgeries were performed in 29 patients, and conventional cardiac angiography (CCA) was performed in 8 patients. The accuracy was calculated based on the surgical and/or CCA findings. The overall imaging quality was evaluated on a five-point scale.
Results:
A total of 146 separate cardiovascular deformities were confirmed. DSCT missed three atrial septal defects and a patent ductus arteriosus. The accuracy of DSCT angiography and TTE was 97.3% (142/146) and 92.5% (135/146), respectively. Overall test parameters for DSCT angiography and TTE were similar (sensitivity, 97.3% vs 92.5%; specificity, 99.8% vs 99.8%). The average subjective image quality score was 4.3 ± 0.7. The mean effective dose was 0.38 ± 0.09 mSv.
Conclusions:
Prospective ECG-triggering DSCT angiography with a very low effective radiation dose allows the accurate diagnosis of anomalies in infants and children with complex CHD compared with TTE. It has great promise to become a commonly used second-line technique for complex CHD.
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