children s health issues
Overview of Heart Defects
Diagnosis of Heart Defects
Before birth, ultrasonography Electrocardiography Chest x-ray Echocardiography Cardiac catheterization Many heart defects can be diagnosed before birth by using Echocardiography and Other Ultrasound Procedures (ultrasonography of the heart). If a heart defect is diagnosed or suspected by the obstetrician, the mother is often referred for a specialized ultrasound examination called fetal echocardiography. This procedure allows the fetus's heart to be examined in detail. When a serious heart defect is confirmed, plans can be made for optimal care of the newborn immediately after birth. In the United States and many other countries, newborns are screened for heart defects when they are one or two days old. Screening is done with a pulse oximeter (a painless test that checks oxygen levels in the blood using a sensor applied to the skin). Heart defects that are not detected before or right after birth are suspected in newborns or young children when symptoms develop, when abnormal heart murmurs are heard when a doctor listens to the heart with a stethoscope, or when other signs of a heart condition are recognized. Diagnosing heart defects in children involves the same techniques used for Introduction to Diagnosis of Heart and Blood Vessel Disorders . Doctors will often suspect a defect after asking the family specific questions and doing a physical examination. Then they typically do echocardiography, Echocardiography can diagnose almost all of the specific defects. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the Heart and 