Description

The number of adults with congenital heart disease is expected to increase over the next decade. Although acquired intracardiac defects are being increasingly recognized in adults, congenital heart disease remains the most common etiology. Advances in cardiac imaging, device technology, and transcatheter techniques, percutaneous closure is now feasible and safe for most intracardiac defects with limited need for surgical approach. There is an increasing role of CT and MR in clinical work-up of intracardiac defects, both techniques can support the identification of anatomical landmarks and MR is accurate in quantifying shunt (Qp:Qs). Device closure is considered the first-line therapy for a variety of congenital intracardiac defects, in particular ostium secundum atrial septal defects and muscular ventricular septal defects; it represents also an alternative therapeutic option for patients with acquired defects such as posttraumatic or postinfarction ventricular septal defects. In addition, detailed 3D anatomy derived from CT/MR images can be used for treatment planning, for virtual or physical simulation (on 3d printed models) and for patient-specific or disease-specific device prototyping and engineering.

Learning Objectives

• to recognize the most common intracardiac defects with CT/MR
• to understand their pathophysiology and perform accurate shunt quantification
• to identify most important cardiac defects landmarks in order to better guide intervention/surgery
• what are the major complications of intracardiac intervention/surgery

Teaser

About the speaker

Dr Aurelio Secinaro is Radiology Consultant and Head of the Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging Unit at the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital and Research Institute in Rome. He’s skilled in performing cardiac MR and CT in children with congenital heart disease and cardiomyopathies. After his medical studies in Turin he completed his training at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, University College of London, where he obtained the maximum level of certification in Cardiovascular cross-sectional Imaging under the supervision of Prof. Andrew Taylor. He is involved in the Grown-Up Congenital Heart disease project in collaboration with the Policlinico Gemelli, Catholic University in Rome. He’s been part of several European Research Projects and he’s currently Project Manager for the Institutional 3D virtual modeling/printing program. Author and coauthor of several pubmed indexed publications, he is member of different national and international diagnostic imaging societies and regularly invited speaker/moderator at scientific meetings. In the past few years he joined the European Society of Pediatric Radiology (ESPR) Educational Committee as member responsible for reappraisal on Cardiothoracic Imaging.