Echocardiographic screening of children and teenagers during routine physical examination

Abstract

Objective: to study the frequency of occurrence of diseases of the cardiovascular system in the course of routine physical examination of the child population, with the purpose of early recognition of various pathological conditions, including structural anomalies of the heart and large vessels.Material and methods: total examined 260 childrens aged 6 to 14 years, 118 girls (45.3 %) and 142 boys (54.6 %). Screening survey was performed in the parasternal, apical and subcostal positions. Time to research occupied from 7 to 20 minutes.Results: out of 260 children who passed clinical examination a structural anomalies of the heart was detected in 56 patients (21,5 % of all researches).Conclusions: the clinical examination of children population has a colossal medical and social important not only in Russia, but all over the world. Echocardiographic screening of children of preschool age is necessary for timely detection of cardiovascular pathology, especially occurring asymptomatically.

Keywords

• echocardiography, screening, clinical examination