Basic Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD)

There are an increasing number of patients with congenital heart disease surviving into adult life. Many of these patients have survived corrective procedures that have fixed but not cured their underlying condition. These patients are frequently at risk of complications and require lifelong surveillance. Others present for the first time in adult life with previously unknown conditions – often shunt lesions, which lead to insidious ventricular enlargement that may go unnoticed for years. All of these patients require anatomic and physiologic delineation of their lesions whether repaired or unrepaired. Cardiovascular MR (CMR) is the ideal tool for this with its unique ability to image clearly regardless of body size and to demonstrate not only ventricular size and function but also vascular flow/stenosis/regurgitation as well as provide information about tissue properties. Finally, the lack of ionizing radiation makes CMR a particularly appropriate tool for the surveillance of this often young and radiation-sensitive population.