• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.622-628
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• 2002

Purpose : The purpose of this study is to ascertain the clinical manifestations and associated cardiac anomalies of dextrocardia. Methods : Twenty-four pediatric patients, who were admitted to, or visited, Dongsan Medical Center Keimyung University and were diagnosed with dextrocardia between January 1996 and July 2001, were enrolled in this study. All patients received echocardiogram and abdominal ultrasonogram to identify structural cardiac anomalies and visceral position. Results : Among 24 patients, 7 cases were situs solitus(29.2%), 10 cases(41.6%) were situs inversus and 7 cases(29.2%) were situs ambiguous. Most were diagnosed within a week of life(87.5%). They were most commonly cyanotic(45.8%), but eleven cases(45.8%) had no specific symptoms or signs. Nineteen cases(79.2%) had accompanied cardiac anomalies, and pulmonary stenosis or atresia were the most common among them. All the cases of situs solitus and ambiguous had associated cardiac anomalies, but half of the situs inversus had that. Eleven cases were dead by cardiac or extracardiac anomalies during follow up and the mortality rate was higher in situs solitus or ambiguous group than situs inversus group. Conclusion : Dextrocardia accompanies different cardiac and extracardiac anomalies. It's very important to diagnose dextrocardia and associated cardiac or extracardiac anomalies in the early stages of life to improve prognosis.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.205-211
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• 2015

The human heart is a complex organ in which many complicated congenital defects may happen and some of them require surgical intervention. Due to the vast complexity of varied anatomical presentations, establishing an accurate and consistent nomenclature system is utmost important to facilitate effective communication among pediatric cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons and radiologists. The Van Praagh segmental approach to the complex congenital heart disease (CHD) was developed in the 1960s and has been used widely as the language for describing complex anatomy of CHD over the decades. It utilizes a systematic and sequential method to describe the cardiac segments and connections which in turn allows accurate, comprehensive and unambiguous description of CHD. It can also be applied to multiple imaging modalities such as echocardiogram, cardiac CT and MRI. The Van Praagh notation demonstrates a group of three letters, with each letter representative for a key embryologic region of cardiac anatomy: the atria, ventricles and great vessels. By using a 3-steps approach, we can evaluate complex CHD precisely and have no difficulties in communicating with other medial colleague. This pictorial essay revisits the logical steps of segmental approach, followed by a pictorial illustration of its application.