The diagnostic value of echocardiography and CT angiography in complex congenital heart disease

Objective To analyze the diagnostic value of echocardiography (UCG) and CT angiography (CTA) in complex congenital heart disease (CCHD). Method s Clinical data of 52 patients with CCHD were collected. All the patients were confirmed by surgery, and UCG and CTA were performed preoperatively. The diagnostic accuracy of UCG, CTA, and their combination were compared and analyzed. Result s 166 heart malformations were found in this group. 148 malformations were detected by UCG with the accuracy of 89.2%, and 154 malformations were detected by CTA with the accuracy of 92.8%, which was slightly higher than that of UCG, but there was no statistically significant difference (P>0.05). A total of 163 malformations were detected by UCG combined with CTA, with the accuracy of 98.2%, which was higher than that of UCG and CTA, with statistically significant difference (P<0.05). Conclusions UCG is simple, inexpensive, and repeatable, and can be used as the first screening method for CCHD. CTA is more intuitive in the display of great vessels and better in the detection of extracardiac structures than UCG. However, CTA has certain ionizing radiation. For patients with clinical suspicion of CCHD but UCG negative, CTA should be applied combinedly to effectively improve the preoperative detection rate. Key words: Echocardiography; Computed tomography; Complex congenital heart disease; Diagnostic accuracy