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Implantation of Total Artificial Heart in Congenital Heart Disease
Published on: July 18, 2014
Congenital heart disease in the adult: clinical approach
1Department of Medicine, UCLA School of Medicine 90024-1679.
Insights
Advances in care have increased longevity for children with congenital heart disease. This has led to a growing need for specialized adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) care, including imaging expertise.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Pediatric Cardiology
- Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD)
Background:
- Significant improvements in pediatric cardiac care have led to increased survival rates.
- Congenital heart disease (CHD) in adults is now a recognized and growing subspecialty.
- Multidisciplinary centers are emerging for comprehensive ACHD management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To highlight the emergence and scope of adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) as a subspecialty.
- To draw attention to the imaging aspects of ACHD for radiologists.
- To foster interest in the diagnostic challenges and management of ACHD.
Main Methods:
- Review of survival patterns (unoperated and post-intervention).
- Analysis of medical and surgical considerations in ACHD.
- Examination of postoperative sequelae and residua.
Main Results:
- Increased longevity in patients with CHD has created a new adult patient population.
- ACHD encompasses diverse clinical aspects, including long-term outcomes and complications.
- Radiologists play a crucial role in diagnosing and managing ACHD.
Conclusions:
- ACHD requires specialized, multidisciplinary care pathways.
- Radiological imaging is essential for understanding the complex anatomy and physiology of ACHD.
- Further engagement of radiologists is needed to address the imaging needs of the ACHD population.
Abstract:
The remarkable advances in diagnostic techniques and in the surgical and medical care of infants and children with congenital heart disease have resulted in an impressive increase in longevity. Congenital heart disease in adults has emerged as a specialized area of cardiovascular interest. In response, special multidisciplinary facilities have been developed for the comprehensive care of adults with congenital heart disease. The scope of the discipline is relatively broad and includes unoperated survival patterns; survival patterns after surgery or interventional catheterization; a host of medical considerations; surgical considerations (operation and reoperation, cardiac catheterization as a therapeutic intervention, and noncardiac surgery); and the important problems of postoperative residua and sequelae. The purpose of this communication is to call attention to this subspecially and to excite the interest of radiologists in certain imaging aspects of congenital heart disease in adults.
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