Parents may certainly worry if they're told that their child has a heart murmur. Not all heart murmurs are symptoms of heart disease. Sometimes, a murmur may be heard in a normal child who has a fever or who is anemic; these murmurs often go away when the underlying problem is treated. 

Busy clinicians need an approach that allows them to appropriately identify and refer patients with pathologic murmurs to a pediatric cardiologist.

In this segment  Georgeann Groh, MD., Washington University Pediatric Cardiologist at St. Louis Children's Hospital and the Director, of Outpatient Pediatric Cardiology, explains heart murmurs in children and when to refer to a pediatric cardiologist.

If children or adolescents present complaining of heart palpitations, it can difficult for the pediatrician to diagnose as a child may have difficulty putting into words what he or she is feeling during a heart palpitation. 

Listen as Jennifer Silva, MD, a Washington University Pediatric Cardiologist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, discusses pediatric heart palpitations and when to refer to a pediatric cardiologist.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, approximately 18 out of every 10,000 babies are born with a critical congenital heart defect (CCHD). CCHD is life threatening and requires intervention in infancy. However, CCHD is not always detected prenatally or upon exam in the nursery. As a result, some infants with CCHD are discharged from the nursery to home, where they may quickly decompensate.

To improve the early detection of CCHD, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommended that CCHD screening be added to the uniform newborn screening panel.

Listen as Caroline Lee, MD., Washington University pediatric cardiologist at St. Louis Children's Hospital and Director, Fetal Heart Center, discusses the guidelines for newborn screening for congenital heart disease.