Cardiologic evaluation of children with suspected heart disease: experience of a public outpatient clinic in Brazil Pediatric Cardiology Outpatient Clinic, SUS and Department of Pediatrics, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil

During initial evaluation of children on an outpatient basis, the index of suspected heart disease may be high, particularly if we consider that innocent murmur occurs in about 50% of the pediatric population. 1-3 This is the most common cause of referral to the pediatric cardiologist, with several reports of such experience published worldwide. Other causes like chest pain, breathlessness at rest and on effort and arrhythmia are less frequent, although not less important in this setting. Obviously, the decision to refer a patient for a specialist consultation is mainly dependent on the ability of the pediatrician to recognize heart disease. This inherent characteristic is certainly related to the information provided during graduate and post-graduate training, which seems to vary from country to country, and is also related to individual skill. The purpose of this paper is to present experience from a public outpatient clinic for pediatric cardiology situated in the state of São Paulo, in the southeast of Brazil. The results are based on a prospective study of 2675 consecutive children under the age of 15, all of them referred from pediatricians for a cardiac evaluation. Cardiologic evaluation of children with suspected heart disease: experience of a public outpatient clinic in Brazil