Arq. Bras. Cardiol. 2021; 116(2): 313-314
Cardiovascular Imaging in Congenital Heart Diseases: Why not Leverage New Imaging Modalities?
This Short Editorial is referred by the Research article "Current Use of Pediatric Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Brazil".
Worldwide, we are living in an era burdened by congenital heart diseases (CHD). If we take a snapshot in 2018, there were 2,944,932 live births in Brazil (Tabnet, DATASUS). Considering the incidence of CHD, about 9 per 1000 live births, which has been stable across countries and populations, we would expect around 26,000 new patients with some form of CHD in our country. On the other hand, worldwide survival rate for CHD in the last 3 decades has been close to 98%. Having said that, CHD continues to be a public health problem worldwide.
In the last four centuries, the specialty of pediatric cardiology has grown tremendously, achieving several milestones in clinical and surgical scenarios, mostly due the incredible advances in cardiovascular imaging diagnostic tools. This allows non-invasive diagnosis in all ages from fetal life until adulthood. The relatively new modality of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) provides clinically useful information in various situations in patients with CHD. Current guidelines for diagnosis and management include echocardiogram, CMR and cardiac catheterization for the majority of CHD patients.
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