Novel CMR techniques for advanced surgical planning

Abstract

Medical and surgical care for the patient with congenital heart disease (CHD) has advanced greatly over the past 40 years; along with improved surgical and catheter-based techniques, intensive unit care, and overall medical advances, improved outcomes have accrued across a whole host of cardiac defects. This is owed, in no small part, to advances in imaging and cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) which has played an important and growing role in this evolution. Novel CMR techniques 25 years ago, such as gadolinium-based imaging and two-dimensional velocity mapping, are now commonplace. At the cutting edge of novel CMR techniques, in the current era, are computational fluid dynamic modelling, three-dimensional printing, four-dimensional flow imaging, and X-ray magnetic resonance/interventional CMR, which will be the focus of this chapter. The hope is that one day these techniques will be the commonplace ones, aiding in the care of a broad spectrum of CHD.