Myocardial Perfusion Imaging in Congenital Heart Disease
Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy allows comparing myocardial perfusion in stress with that at rest. This helps to identify stress induced myocardial ischaemia as a result of narrowed coronary arteries. Although this is rarely used in children, this page summarises the indications requiring myocardial perfusion assessment.
Indications
- Congenital anomalies of the coronary arteries resulting in narrowed arteries
- Some surgical repairs require surgical relocation of the coronary ostia in the neonatal period which could result in ostial stenosis
- Kawasaki’s disease causes coronary arteritis in young child and may cause acquired coronary stenoses
Limited information is available on the assessment of myocardial perfusion in children. This could be significant because:
- Asymptomatic perfusion defects have been shown to be frequently present
- This may be a cause of post-operative ventricular dysfunction
- This may have a long term significance
