Our team of specialists treat kids with all types of heart conditions. These experts include:

• Pediatric cardiologists: Provide expert, child-centered heart care.
• Pediatric electrophysiologist: Helps manage irregular heart rhythms and adjust pacemakers, if needed.
• Exercise physiologists: Conduct treadmill stress tests for kids.
• Child life specialists: Help ease your child’s stress while at the hospital for testing or treatment.
• Maternal fetal medicine specialists: Can detect heart conditions before your baby is born.
• Pediatric nephrologists: Manage high blood pressure and kidney conditions.
• Pediatric cardiology nurses: Provide support and education for your entire family.
• Pediatric cardiac sonographers: Specially trained to perform echocardiograms (heart ultrasound tests) for kids.
• Geneticists and genetic counselors: Can check your child for genetic disorders that may cause heart conditions.
• Social workers: Help coordinate school support and other resources for your family.

Your maternal fetal medicine specialist, neonatologist (newborn intensive care specialist), pediatrician, primary care provider or emergency room physicians can refer you to us. Or you can reach out to our team directly, especially if your child has a family history of heart disease.

To make our services more convenient, we’ll aim to coordinate your child’s doctor visit, examination and testing on the same day. Some tests may need to be performed on a different day, such as exercise stress test, if indicated. If you have multiple children with heart conditions, we’ll do our best to schedule same-day appointments.

We also communicate results quickly with your referring physician and keep them informed of your child’s care.

During a prenatal ultrasound, an obstetrician or maternal fetal medicine specialist may find signs of congenital heart disease (heart defects). Our pediatric cardiologists can perform a fetal echocardiogram to check the structure and function of your baby’s heart. With these findings, we’ll work with other specialists to develop a care plan for the short and long term.

When you first meet with a pediatric cardiologist, we’ll ask questions to get your child’s family and medical history. Our team will also examine your child and order tests, which can usually be done on the same day. Tests may include:

• Echocardiograms, which use soundwaves to check your child’s heart in the clinic and in inpatient settings
• Cardiac computed tomography scans (CTs), which use X-rays to create detailed images of the heart
• Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRIs), which use strong magnets to examine and diagnose heart conditions
• Electrocardiograms (ECGs or EKGs) and ambulatory ECG monitors such as Holter monitors and event monitors, which record your child’s heartbeat
• Exercise stress tests, which check your child’s heart while they run on a treadmill 

Our child life specialists can use distraction and other techniques to reduce your child’s stress during testing.

After reviewing your child’s test results, we’ll recommend a personalized care plan.

If your baby has an inherited condition like Marfan syndrome that raises their heart risks, we can help. We provide specialized heart care for kids with genetic disorders through our cardiogenetics clinic. Our genetic counselor can also provide genetic testing for family members when needed.

Our pediatric cardiologists partner with pediatric surgeons to examine and treat kids with chest wall disorders. If your child has a “pigeon chest” (pectus carinatum) or a sunken chest (pectus excavatum), support is available. We can determine whether and to what extent your child’s chest shape affects their heart function and offer options for next steps.

Our pediatric cardiologists see children at a specialized muscular dystrophy clinic at Children’s Hospital. We work with other experts to check your child for signs of weak heart muscle (cardiomyopathy) and offer treatments when needed.

We can provide referrals to heart surgeons and work with them to support your child’s care. With our advanced technology, we can share digital images of your child’s heart with surgeons anywhere in near real time. Having a local cardiologist manage your child’s care allows you to receive more personalized attention and avoid long travel times.