How to diagnose congenital heart disease in children

How is congenital heart disease diagnosed in children?

During the fetal period, under the influence of certain factors, the fetus's cardiovascular abnormalities are called congenital heart disease. Congenital heart disease is a very common congenital malformation with an incidence rate between 0.4% and 1%. Its spectrum is very wide, including hundreds of types, often accompanied by multiple malformations with varying degrees of severity. Patients with milder conditions are asymptomatic throughout their lives and do not require special treatment.

1. Symptoms and signs. The clinical manifestations of congenital heart disease are very diverse and are related to the degree of deformity. Typical symptoms include repeated colds, developmental delay, sweating, fatigue, shortness of breath, cyanosis of lips, etc. Auscultation can reveal obvious heart noise. If complicated with infective endocarditis, the patient will experience chest pain, palpitations and other symptoms.

2. Laboratory examination. Once the above symptoms occur, you should seek medical attention in time and receive relevant examinations. First, laboratory examinations should be performed, including C-reactive protein determination, complete blood cytology count and blood culture. If the C-reactive protein increases significantly, it may be endocarditis, and further blood culture is needed to identify the pathogen.

3. Imaging examination. Further imaging examinations are required, including echocardiography, CT examination and magnetic resonance imaging examination. Echocardiography is the main means of diagnosing congenital heart disease and can provide a detailed understanding of cardiovascular blood flow and structure. CT examination is non-invasive, rapid and comprehensive, and can show complex large vessel malformations and present intuitive results.

The above are the diagnostic methods for congenital heart disease in children, which should be judged in combination with clinical symptoms and examination results. This is a complex congenital disease with very diverse clinical manifestations, which requires detailed examination and a treatment plan based on the type of deformity. The treatment methods for this disease include traditional surgery and interventional surgery, mainly including balloon valvuloplasty, catheter occlusion, etc.