Magnetic resonance imaging of congenital heart disease: sensitivity and specificity using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.

MRI has shown promise for the evaluation of various congenital heart lesions. The current study was designed to assess the sensitivity and specificity of the technique for the evaluation of all major anatomic elements of the heart affected in simple and complex congenital heart disease. MR images of 51 patients (31 males and 20 females, ages 3 to 69 years) with a total of 110 congenital heart lesions were reviewed by a panel of two cardiac radiologists and one pediatric cardiologist, who assessed the cardiac pathoanatomy without knowledge of clinical details and assigned a confidence level to each diagnosis. The true diagnosis was established independently by the findings of angiocardiography and catheterization as well as by surgery, where applicable. ROC curves were generated from the responses, and the sensitivity at a specificity level of 90% was determined. MRI was shown to have a high sensitivity in evaluating great vessel relationships (100%), thoracic aorta abnormalities (94%), ASDs (91%) and VSDs (100%), visceroatrial situs (100%), and loop (100%). Three of five anomalies of the pulmonary and systemic veins were diagnosed by MRI. Right ventricular outflow obstructions (95%) were detected with a much higher sensitivity than lesions of the other valves (aortic valve 52%, mitral valve 62%, tricuspid valve 76%). Spin-echo MRI is a sensitive and specific method for the noninvasive assessment of congenital heart disease, with limitations in the evaluation of some valvular anomalies.