In the pediatric cardiology unit we take care of fetuses, newborns, children and adults who suffer of congenital heart defects or specific acquired heart diseases.

Outpatient clinics:

Pediatric cardiology consultation

Newborns and children are referred to this tertiary care clinic after a pediatrician, cardiologist or general practitioner suspects that the patient has a cardiac disease. The most frequent reason for referral is due to the auscultatory finding of a murmur.

Cardiogenetic clinic

This new and unique clinic was established in 1998, as a joined project of the Pediatric Cardiology Unit and the Department of Genetics. A cardiologist and a geneticist examine the child and question the parents in order to offer specific genetic counseling to the family of the affected child or fetus. Explanations about the disease and its transmission are given and the possible risk of recurrence is discussed with the family. Pregnant women who carry a fetus with a cardiac defect are also referred to this clinic. In addition to a thorough explanation of the disease and planning of the birth, emphasis is put on postnatal care and prognosis.

Non-invasive laboratory:

Fetal echocardiography

Pregnant women who carry a fetus that is suspected to have a cardiac defect or women who have a history of cardiac defects in the family, are referred to undergo this examination. Also, pregnant women suffering of a specific systemic disease such as Diabetes Mellitus or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, undergo fetal echocardiography. The examination is performed typically between the 17th and the 22nd week of gestation. However, in some cases where the development of a cardiac defect is highly suspected, fetal echocardiography will already be performed at the 14th week of gestation. In rare cases, transvaginal fetal echocardiography will be performed even earlier, i.e. at the 11th week of gestation.

Pediatric echocardiography

Newborns, infants and children who seem to suffer of heart disease are examined by echocardiography to determine if they carry a cardiac defect.

Pediatric exercise test

This test is performed similarly to the adult exercise test, however, with an age-adjusted target heart rate. In contrast to adults, the indication to perform this test in children is usually not ischemic heart disease, but to assess the cardiac function after surgery or to investigate a cardiac arrhythmia during effort.

Pediatric Holter

In children, 24-hour ECG monitoring is mainly used to assess a congenital or acquired arrhythmia.

Invasive laboratory:

Pediatric cardiac catheterization

In children cardiac catheterization is rarely performed as a diagnostic procedure since most of the structural and functional heart diseases are diagnosed by echocardiography. Some catheterizations are performed to assess hemodynamics before surgery. In the majority of cases, the baby or the child will be referred for a transcutaneous procedure such as coil closure of a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), device closure of an atrial septal defect (ASD), or creating a communication through the interatrial septum in case that the newborn has transposition of great arteries.

Intra-operative and intra-catheterization transesophageal echocardiography (TEE)

TEE is performed during surgical or transcutaneous therapeutic intervention in the catheterization laboratory to provide on-line imaging of the heart.

In-hospital services:

In addition, the pediatric cardiologists of the unit take care of children admitted to different Departments of the Hospital, namely:

• Pediatrics
• Neonatology
• Pediatric intensive care unit
• Pediatric surgery