Ultrasound as an adjunct to cardiac interventions in pediatric patients

Transcatheter therapy has come to play a major role in the care of patients with congenital heart disease. While some transcatheter interventions have become the treatments of choice, others have become alternatives to surgical procedures for a spectrum of congenital cardiac defects. Echocardiography has emerged as the prime noninvasive diagnostic modality and has been evolving as a monitoring modality to aid in the performance of and assessment of the effectiveness of these interventions. In this review, the current role of the three techniques of echocardiography: transthoracic, transesophageal and intravascular imagings, in each major catheter intervention was discussed and their potential future role was described.