Abstract
This chapter reviews basic protocols for obtaining a high quality cardiac computed tomography (CT) in a neonate while emphasizing radiation lowering techniques. It discusses the advantages of cardiac CT over other cross‐sectional modalities, and shows the post‐processing techniques available with cardiac CT. To utilize the advantages of cardiac computed tomography angiography (CTA) safely, it is important to consider radiation exposure and optimize scanning techniques. Currently, there are two accepted cardiac CTA scanning techniques for infants with congenital heart disease namely: retrospective and prospective electrocardiogram (ECG)‐gated scanning. Cardiac CTA produces the highest spatial resolution images of all cross‐sectional imaging modalities. Cardiac CTA, with its high special and fast temporal resolution, is the best imaging modality to image the coronary arteries. Commercially available workstations have software packages to provide volumetric analysis for cardiac CTA. Volumetric CT post‐processing of pulmonary vasculature may be performed using a commercially available three‐dimensional (3D) workstation.