Special issue highlights expanding role of cardiac CT in congenital heart disease

ARLINGTON, VA (December 19, 2025) — The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) published a special focus issue dedicated to the use of cardiac CT for congenital heart disease (CHD).

Published in the Nov/Dec issue of the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (JCCT), the collection serves as a guide for cardiac imagers, bringing forward the key CHD principles that are high-yield and will help them with their practice.

“This is a very exciting time in the field for pediatric and congenital cardiac imagers,” said writing group co-chair Anjali Chelliah, MD, FSCCT. “There's a need for guidelines, for standardization, to establish the evidence base in this population and a need to understand the long-term effects.”

“At the same time, we have all of these new technologies — FFR-CT, myocardial perfusion, photon counting, artificial intelligence — all these applications that are being utilized in a major way by our counterparts imaging adults that we can now start bringing to pediatrics and to CHD as well.”

In the collection’s editorial, “The expanding role of cardiac CT in congenital heart disease: Precision imaging for a complex population,” co-chairs Dr. Chelliah and B. Kelly Han, MD, FSCCT describe the growing demand for educational and investigational publications in the field of CHD.

“Once cautiously utilized due to concerns over radiation exposure and limited spatial and temporal resolution, CT has emerged as a critical and indispensable tool for evaluating congenital cardiovascular anomalies in pediatric and adult patients of all ages,” they wrote. “There is accelerating adoption and exponential growth of CCT at most congenital cardiac programs.”

To accommodate this growth, the special issue’s goal is to impart this knowledge to colleagues that primarily image adults and don't typically deal with CHD on a day-to-day basis, Dr. Chelliah said, explaining that there are currently more adults living with CHD than there are children with it — a flip from only 15 years ago when CHD patients were mostly pediatric.

“As these patients get older, they're going to show up in the emergency rooms and show up on the radiology patient lists and reading queues,” she said. “It's an important mission for us to be able to educate our adult colleagues on what they're going to be encountering.”

When asked about key articles and themes, Dr. Chelliah noted the significance of evidence-based multicenter research in articles such as “Rapid Growth of CT Utilization Compared to MRI and Echocardiography in Imaging for Congenital Heart Diseases: A Multicenter Analysis” and “Contemporary trends in utilization of pediatric cardiac imaging in children's hospitals,” which further emphasizes the need for hospital leadership to invest in resources for this expanding patient population.

Drs. Chelliah and Han are also CHD track co-chairs for the SCCT 21st Annual Scientific Meeting (SCCT2026), which has plans to further support the growing interest in CT for CHD.

“I think some of the big things coming are first an increased push in education for those two overlapping audiences: for more general cardiac CT imagers and for those for whom pediatric and CHD is the focus of their practice,” Dr. Chelliah said. “Beyond the Annual Scientific Meeting, SCCT's new Pediatric and CHD Task Force (part of the SCCT Education Committee), also means ongoing support for guidelines, for advocacy and technologist education, as well as international efforts and for us to grow as a community.”

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About the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography

Founded in 2005, the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) is the international professional society devoted to improving health outcomes through effective use of cardiovascular computed tomography (CCT). SCCT is a community of physicians, scientists and technologists from over 100 countries advocating for access, research, education and clinical excellence in the use of CCT. For more information, please visit https://scct.org/.

About the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography 

The Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (JCCT) is a peer-review journal of the SCCT that integrates the international cardiovascular CT community and addresses a broad range of topics affecting cardiovascular CT imaging. The journal’s major focus is on original research and on the clinical and technical aspects of cardiovascular CT. For more information, please visit https://journalofcardiovascularct.com. 

About the 21st Annual Scientific Meeting of SCCT (SCCT2026)

SCCT2026 – the preeminent meeting focused on cardiovascular CT – will be held July 9 - 12, 2026 in San Diego, California. The SCCT Annual Scientific Meeting is designed to engage physicians, trainees, technologists and healthcare professionals in a complete overview of the cardiovascular CT field. Planned sessions are targeted for all levels, from new practitioners to experienced providers. Sessions range from general overviews to state-of-the-art research and expert discussions. For more information, please visit https://scct.org/SCCT2026.

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