The Significance of Ventricular Topology in the Analysis of Congenitally Malformed Hearts

Abstract

There are still confusing descriptions of how congenitally malformed hearts should be categorised, even in their simplest forms. Despite repeated attempts toward a unified and simplified analysis, morphologists and clinicians continue to use different nomenclatures. This variability has a profound impact not only on how we communicate with patients but also on how the healthcare professionals produce clinical reports, research papers and educational and training materials, not to mention the impact on other levels such as managerial, administrative, coding, financial and media communications. Moreover, there are influences on how we actually treat patients based on a different understanding of nomenclature. This paper aims to explain a method of analysing the cardiac segments and their connections based on the current understanding of structural development.

Keywords

• ventricular topology
• segmental sequential analysis
• segmental connections