Echocardiography is the primary imaging modality for assessment of cardiovascular anatomy and function in infants and young children (1). The diagnostic accuracy of echocardiography is very high (2), but there are certain conditions where additional cross-sectional imaging is beneficial in the diagnostic work-up. Examples include complex congenital heart lesions such as isomerisms, mixed anomalous pulmonary venous connections, borderline hypoplasia of the left or right ventricle, complex pulmonary perfusion in pulmonary atresia and complex arch anatomy. These patients benefit from additional imaging not only for completing...

This was a prospective dual-center cohort study over a two-year period. Following approval by the institutional research ethics boards and obtaining written parental informed consent, all infants younger than 6 months old with complex congenital cardiovascular anomaly who had a comprehensive echocardiographic evaluation but required further cross-sectional imaging with CMR were recruited for this study. The exclusion criteria included mechanical ventilation, oxygen dependence, feeding difficulties, and any contraindication to CMR or CMR contrast media. The feed-and-sleep study was performed by fasting the infant for a...

A total of 60 infants (39 from center A and 21 from center B) were recruited for this study, 32 male and 28 female, ages ranging from 1 to 177 days (50 ± 54). All infants tolerated the procedure well, and no complications were noted in any of the patients. The patients’ primary cardiac diagnoses are listed in Table 1 and the clinical questions that prompted CMR are shown in Table 2. The feed-and-sleep CMR was successful in all 60 patients. Acquired images were of...

Our prospective two-center study proves that feed-and-sleep CMR can be successfully used in infants younger than 6 months old with complex cardiovascular anomalies and obviates sedation or GA for such studies. The feed-and-sleep method is safe and well tolerated and CMR images acquired using this technique are of sufficient quality to answer the clinical question and help with the accurate diagnosis and surgical planning. Feed-and–sleep CMR is not only safer but also more time and staff efficient compared to CMR under sedation or GA (5)...

1. Benavidez OJ,Gauvreau K,Jenkins KJ,Geva T. Diagnostic errors in pediatric echocardiography: Development of taxonomy and identification of risk factors. Circulation. 2008;117:2995-3001 2. Vettukattil JJ. Three dimensional echocardiography in congenital heart disease. Heart 2012 98: 79-88 3. Neubauer V, Griesmaier E, Baumgartner K, Mallouhi A, Keller M, Kiechl-Kohlendorfer U. Feasibility of cerebral MRI in non-sedated preterm-born infants at term-equivalent age: report of a single Centre. Acta Paediatrica, 100:1544–1547 4. Fogel MA, Pawlowski TW, Harris MA et al (2011) Comparison and usefulness of cardiac magnetic resonance versus...