Editorial
Radionuclide investigation of congenital heart disease
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
In
a previous issue of Heart, Verttukattil and
colleagues presented a study of intrapulmonary arteriovenous shunting
after a superior cavopulmonary anastomosis using radionuclide labelled albumin microspheres.1 Their study is unusual. Despite
there being long established indications for radionuclide imaging in congenital heart disease,2 such investigations are not
often performed. Equally they are not often used in research studies. Why are they not more widely used? There are many reasons. Some are
shared with acquired heart disease, where the use of nuclear cardiology
varies greatly between different centres. Cultural and economic reasons
have been used to explain these differences in use. There are certainly
differences between use in Europe and North American
centres.3 There are particular factors that apply to
congenital heart disease. Perhaps most importantly investigation of
congenital heart disease is focused much more on structural rather than
functional abnormalities. Radionuclide imaging has little to contribute
in this regard.
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This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Davlouros, P A, Niwa, K, Webb, G, Gatzoulis, M A
(2006). The right ventricle in congenital heart disease. Heart
92: i27-i38
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