Routine Heart Screening for Kids – the Future of Pediatric Heart Care?

Dec. 4, 2009— -- Routine heart screening for adolescents is currently not deemed necessary in the United States, but without it, the congenital heart defect that left a hole in Madelinne d'Aversa's heart would have gone undetected until it created more serious issues, such as heart failure and lung damage.

On a whim, Madelinne's grandmother volunteered her to have her heart checked as part of a local research project known as the Houston Early Age Risk Testing and Screening – HEARTS for short. Madelinne was in sixth grade at the time.

Though she showed no outward signs of a heart condition, the scanning showed a hole in her heart that required surgery.

"It was really emotional at first, because up until now, she had been perfect -- no issues," said Madelinne's mother, Shana Harvey.

"Down the road [this could have caused damage] that was irreversible," she said, adding that they are so grateful doctors were able to catch the problem.

Since her surgery Aug. 3, Madelinne has made a full recovery and now she is back to playing volleyball and dancing at school -- everything's "back to normal," she said.

Led by Dr. John Higgins, a cardiologist at Memorial Hermann Hospital and a professor of cardiology at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, HEARTS is currently providing heart screening to sixth-graders around Houston and -- contingent on future funding -- hopes eventually to screen all sixth-graders in Texas.

Last spring, HEARTS kicked off its research at Key Middle School in Houston and is continuing now at nearby Fleming Middle School, screening 150 students this week.

Out of the 94 kids screened last spring, researchers discovered seven with previously undetected heart conditions, two of which were potentially life-threatening and required surgery.

This incidence of heart conditions, nearly 7 percent for this group, is much higher than researchers anticipated.

"The adjective I would use to describe it is shocking," said Higgins. "Based on the literature, we [predicted] an incidence of about one in 200, but we [continue to get] higher than that number." Higgins says one reason for the seeming increase is that past screenings were limited to student athletes.

"We think the children who have these problems might be [those] who get more out of breath and can't keep up. By having this underlying problem, they might be [selected] out from high level athletics."