INITIAL EVALUATION OF CHILDREN WITH HEART MURMURS BY THE NON-SPECIALIZED PEDIATRICIAN

To analyse the ability of the non-specialized paediatrician to evaluate children with a heart murmur and the consequences of this evaluation for the need of further investigations,we undertook a prospective and consecutive study of 100 children, referred for initial evaluation of a heart murmur. Except for 1 child with a slight peripheral pulmonary artery stenosis, 53% of the children were correctly diagnosed as having no heart disease. In a project design where 47% of the children were referred for an echocardiographic study; no clinically significant heart disease was missed. Conclusion Clinical evaluation without laboratory tests performed by paediatricians without any special training in cardiology could correctly acquit 50% of the children of heart disease, with no need for further investigation.