Role of echocardiography in the assessment of adolescents and adults with congenital heart disease.

Adolescent and adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) represent a special group of individuals. They often require regular assessment of their cardiac anatomy and functional hemodynamics. Most children with repaired CHD surviving to adulthood are either corrected or fully repaired and may not require long term follow-up. However, there are is a significant number of grown up children with residual abnormality or palliated defects, in whom full correction was not possible. Some of them are likely to present with complications and need repeated evaluation. Others may require improvement or stabilisation of their hemodynamics during stressful period like pregnancy or non-cardiac surgery. These conditions include single ventricle repair, repaired tetralogy, Mustard or Sennings operation for transposition of great arteries, aortic arch abnormalities, postatrioventricular septal defect (AVSD) repair, bicuspid aortic valve, Ebstein anomaly and unoperated congenital heart disease leading to Eisenmenger syndrome. The focus of this discussion will be mainly on this subset.