Magnetic resonance imaging in patients with hypoplastic right heart syndrome

Abstract ECG-gated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been shown to provide excellent tomographic images of congenital heart defects. 1–4 Cardiac structures are especially well demonstrated because of the sharp distinction between relatively white myocardial walls or valves and the dark appearance of rapidly flowing blood within the heart. In particular, the clarity with which the endocardial and epicardial surfaces are resolved using MRI is superior to that produced by other noninvasive imaging modalities such as computed tomography (CT) or ultrasound and rivals the clarity produced by high quality cineangiograms. Thus, ventricular size, geometry, and wall thicknesses can be precisely defined. In this study, we examined the ability of MRI to depict the abnormal cardiac morphology in patients with known hypoplastic right heart syndrome (tricuspid atresia or pulmonic atresia with intact ventricular septum).