Assessment of Pulmonary Venous Anatomy.

The development of radio-frequency ablation for the treatment of atrial fibrillation has led to increased interest in the accurate determination of pulmonary vein anatomy to help plan the procedure and to monitor for postablation stenosis. Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography readily demonstrates the pulmonary veins and is the method of choice for these required serial imaging studies. In this chapter, we review the techniques for pulmonary vein imaging, normal and variant pulmonary vein anatomy, the utility of imaging prior to and after atrial fibrillation ablation, and congenital pulmonary vein anomalies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]