[Magnetic resonance imaging in assessing the complications of cardiac surgery involving the ascending aorta].

Complications involving the ascending aorta after cardiac surgery are rare (< 1%). Clinical findings are aspecific and may present a long time after surgery. Diagnostic imaging is used to show the type of complication and to provide adequate information for a suitable therapy. The authors investigated both efficacy and usefulness of MRI in the study of cardiac surgery complications involving the ascending aorta. Ten patients treated for heart disease were examined with MRI. Eight of them had had aortic valve replacement, 1 ascending aorta replacement and 1 both. Chest radiography and MRI were performed in every patient; 4 patients underwent transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), 2 patients TTE and 1 TEE; 2 patients were submitted to CT and 4 to angiography. MRI showed 3 ascending aorta aneurysms, 3 dissecting aneurysms and 4 pseudoaneurysms. In the patients with aneurysms and dissecting aneurysms, MRI correctly demonstrated both the aneurysm and the intimal flap. MRI showed only large pseudoaneurysms, depicting mediastinal hemorrhage suggestive of pseudoaneurysm if the latter was small. In such cases, only angiography showed the breach site. In conclusion, MRI can be considered the method of choice to depict cardiac surgery complications involving the ascending aorta if aneurysms and dissecting aneurysms are present, because it yields enough information for both diagnosis and surgery. In contrast, in pseudoaneurysms or mediastinal hematomas angiography is necessary to show the exact rupture site of the aortic wall.