When patients that are referred to see me
as a Pediatric Cardiologist, it's usually
because of something that happened in their
OB visit.
Whenever mothers go in for their anatomy scan
or their screening ultrasound around 18 weeks
or so, sometimes the OB doctors will pick
up something that gives them concern that
a heart defect may be present.
Also sometimes they'll recognize risk factors
that may make it more likely that a mom has
a heart defect.
So in either one of those cases, patients
are referred to me for what we call a fetal
echocardiogram.
And what that means is we use our state-of-the-art
equipment here- an ultrasound machine just
like in the OB's office- where we do a detailed
scan of the baby's heart.
I would look at all the chambers of the heart,
watch the blood flow through the heart and
we try to assess to see if there's any problems
with the structure of the baby's heart or
the baby's heart rhythm.
