Angie's LIST Guide to
Pediatric cardiology

If your primary care physician notices something unusual during a checkup, he or she may provide a referral to the pediatric cardiology department at a local hospital. A specialist might be called in to evaluate heart murmurs, rapid breathing, chest pain, fainting episodes or certain infections. An obstetrician may refer a pregnant patient if a congenital defect is suspected as early as 18 weeks of gestation.

All patients receive a thorough examination when under the care of a pediatric cardiologist. In most cases, evaluation alone can find the problem using noninvasive and minimally invasive tests. Noninvasive tests are conducted without needles or inserting instruments or fluids in the body. Minimally invasive tests on the other hand can include a needle prick for a blood test, shot or insertion of a tube (catheter) or other device.

Specialized tests such as electrocardiogram and echocardiogram may be required. There could also be a reason to order exercise stress testing, which involves placing a monitor with electrodes on the skin to record the heart's activity.

When dealing with pregnant women, the specialist will use fetal echocardiography, which is much like ultrasound but focused on the heart structure of a fetus.

Two effective tests, cardiac MRI and cardiac CT scans, are important tools in cardiology. Cardiac MRI involves magnetic resonance imaging to create two-dimensional and three-dimensional images of the heart and vessels while cardiac CT scans uses short bursts of X-rays to create images of the heart and vessels.

Cardiac catheterization is a minimally invasive diagnostic test that examines the inside of the heart's blood vessels by injecting contrast via microtools.