ABSTRACT
Several imaging modalities are used to confirm congenital heart disease when it is suggested by the symptoms and physical examination. In, diagnosis and treatment of congenital cardiac disease often depended on cardiac catheterization. In the past decades, however, the number of diagnostic catheterization procedures has steadily declined in favor of interventional procedures, and imaging methods have shifted toward the use of less invasive and noninvasive techniques. Echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computerized tomography have gained a well-established role in the morphological and functional assessment of the heart and the great vessels. MRI is extremely useful for delineation of the anatomy of the heart and great vessels, as well as for nonquantifiable assessment of blood-flow characteristics. The first successful ligation of an open arterial duct was undertaken in 1938 in the USA by Robert E Gross in Boston, and independently by Emil Karl Frey in Germany.
