Main description:

Heart disease in children has a number of diagnostic traps for the unwary, and all of us involved in the specialty have been caught at one time or another. For example, it is sometimes very difficult to differentiate between respiratory and cardiac disease in infants and between neurological and cardiac conditions in older children, and the consequences of taking the wrong path can be significant. This book is a collection of cases highlighting situations which can ensnare even the best cardiologist. Although they illustrate the importance of taking a good history and performing a thorough examination, the most important lesson is learning to keep an open mind and develop the ability to think laterally. As clinicians we need to have the confidence to make a decision for our patients but also the humility to be able to acknowledge that we don’t always get it right first time, and it is imperative that we learn from the experience. We hope the reader will find these short chapters interesting and while they are not evidence-based medicine in the true sense, they do represent a wide range of clinical experience from which we can all learn. ​

Feature:

Use of high quality diagnostic imaging to illustrate cases with links

Relevant concise case-based discussions

Case examples cover the complete range of cardiac conditions encountered in children

Back cover:

This book is a collection of cases highlighting situations which can ensnare even the best cardiologist working with pediatric patients. Heart disease in children has a number of diagnostic traps for the unwary, and many of those involved in the specialty have been caught at one time or another. Although the cases contained within these pages illustrate the importance of taking a good history and performing a thorough examination, the most important lesson is learning to keep an open mind and develop the ability to think laterally. For example, it is sometimes very difficult to differentiate between respiratory and cardiac disease in infants and between neurological and cardiac conditions in older children, and the consequences of taking the wrong path can be significant.

Practical Pediatric Cardiology is made up of concise chapters that are designed to shed some light on the often difficult management decisions in this group of patients. The chapters represent a wide range of clinical experience and thus will be useful for all readers from those in training through nursing and emergency medical professionals to practicing pediatric cardiologists and cardiac surgeons.

Contents:

It’s Enough to Make You Anxious.- Fetal AVSD or Maybe Not?.- Mind the Gap.- Dilated Cardiomyopathy: If You Don't Suspect, You Can't Diagnose!.- Syncope:  It’s All in the History.- Chest Pain in Children: Not Always Benign.- Coronary Artery Imaging Is Crucial.- The Woes Lie Below.- When Not to Intubate Babies Receiving 100% Oxygen.- A Child with a Long QT?.- Breathlessness in an Ex-Prem When All Is Not What It Seems.- Think Outside the Chest.- Fontan Circulation: Forget the Atrial Septum at Your Peril.- Is This Really Bronchiolitis?.- A Neonatal Dilemma.- The Collapsing Teenager.- Dilated Cardiomyopathy: Think of the Diet.- A T-Wave Tight Spot.- Don’t Forget the Head and Neck Vessels.- The Test that Gets Forgotten.- Don't Ignore Reverse Differential Cyanosis.- Pulmonary Resistance: How Best to Measure?.- Cardiomyopathy in Infants: Look at the Rhythm, Then Look Again.