Various methods are used in the diagnosis of congenital heart disease. Since transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is an available and practical method, it is generally the first choice in these methods. However, aortic arch, coronary arteries, pulmonary artery branches, pulmonary veins and other structures cannot be fully visualized in TTE. Therefore more advanced imaging techniques such as cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) are being more widely used for diagnosis and preoperative planning. Especially children are more susceptible to ionizing radiation than adults, the biggest disadvantage of...

From February 2016 to August 2018, 24 patients with cardiac symptoms received ECG triggered and low radiation dose cardiac CT scans at Siemens Somatom force (Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Erlangen, Germany). Patients age, gender, indication for exam, exam protocol, total exam doses analyzed retrospectively. Total exam dose (DLP) values were obtained from the CT scanning protocol. Effective radiation dose (mSv) was estimated using the DLP method with a conversion factor. The conversion factor was 0.039 for 0-1 year old, 0.026 for 2-4 years old, 0.018 for...

The ages of the patients were between 1 day to 17 years. 24 patients have ECG-triggered cardiac CT. The avarage of heart rate of the patients was 107 ±23,7 (SD) bpm. The mean radiation dose (DLP) was 71.5 ±64,4 (SD) mGycm. The mean effective radiation dose was calculated as 1.34 ±1,01 (SD) mSv. Two techniques we used for cardiac ct; retrospective and prospective. Retrospective technique includes all phases of cardiac cycle. Prospective technique only allows the exposure to apply at a certain predefined period of...

To obtain high-quality images in children, especially with complex cardiac anomalies is crucial for correct diagnosis and planning surgical therapy. High-quality images with low dose can be obtained with ECG-triggered CCT method. Especially if the patient's heart rate is normal, prospective ECG-triggered CCT reduces the dose of ionized radiation more than retrospective.

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