Study on the pulmonary artery development with complex congenital heart disease with diminished pulmonary blood flow by dual source computed tomography

This study aimed to investigate the clinical value of DSCT pre-operation in the assessment of the pulmonary arteries in the complex congenital heart disease with diminished pulmonary blood flow and compared with echocardiography in China. 79 patients scheduled for operation, who were suspected or definite complex congenital heart disease with diminished pulmonary blood flow were examined by both DSCT and ECHO. 3 aspects reflecting pulmonary artery' developmental capacity were concerned, including the pulmonary artery trunk, left pulmonary artery and right pulmonary artery, whose results were subjected to statistical analysis using Pearson's correlation and t-test analysis compared with that of echocardiography. The pulmonary arteries could be clearly observed from original images and reconstruction images. There were no significant differences between DSCT and echocardiography for the non-invasive assessment of pulmonary artery anatomy (P>0.05). The measurement parameters correlate well by DSCT and echocardiography (P>0.05). Compared with echocardiography, DSCT is superior in quantitative assessment of pulmonary artery' developmental capacity, therefore it would be helpful to evaluate the pulmonary development condition preoperation of the complex congenital heart disease with diminished pulmonary blood flow.