Imaging the neonatal heart--essentials for the radiologist.

Modern radiological imaging provides precise diagnosis in congenital heart disease (CHD). The most important and readily available radiological examination is still chest radiography. The diagnostically most important imaging method is echocardiography. Magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography have gained much ground over the more invasive cardiac catheter angiography, which is still needed in more complex conditions and for interventional procedures, which are performed more frequently. This article is focused on imaging of the neonatal heart. Basically, characteristics of the chest radiograph in CHD are illustrated. To establish an understanding of CHD haemodynamics are reviewed. It is not the role of the radiologist to make a detailed anatomic or physiologic diagnosis on the basis of a plain film, but the radiologist should be aware of changes in a neonatal chest X-ray that CHD can cause and should point out that the child might have CHD thus initiating further work-up.