Her enjoyment of the study of the mechanics of the heart and how it makes sense to her is one of the factors that led Pediatric Cardiologist Dongngan Truong, MD, MSCI, to focus on the cardiac specialty when she became…
Born, raised and educated in Miami, Fla., with a large population of Spanish-speakers, Michael Lopez, MD, appreciates the nuances that he can pick up when speaking to a heart family in their own language. When Cyrus Samai, MD, Chief Operating…
Summer marks a time when many parents are busy making appointments for their student athletes to get sports physicals. Required by most school systems to participate in school sports, the sports physical screens for many conditions, including heart disease. Where…
Two of the tools pediatric cardiologists have when they want to gather more information about a child’s heart include the echocardiogram (ECHO) and the electrocardiogram (EKG). Both are noninvasive, painless and quick ways to learn about the heart’s structure and…
So you’ve learned that your child has a congenital heart defect (CHD). Their diagnosis may feel overwhelming. You may feel like the world has gone sideways. “My first reaction was to pick my baby up and run out the door;…
When sudden cardiac arrest occurs outside of a hospital, a person only has about a 10 percent chance of survival. However, if the cardiac arrest occurs in a Georgia school that has been prepared for such an event through Project…
What is an Atrial Septal Defect (ASD)? The atrial septum is the wall between the two upper chambers of the heart, and an atrial septal defect (ASD) is an abnormal hole in the wall. ASD, a heart problem that is present at…
A top-end heart rate for children is roughly 220 bpm minus the child’s age in years. Rates faster than that can indicate supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), an abnormally fast heart rhythm caused by an electrical short circuit in the top chambers…
Hearing her baby’s heartbeat for the first time can be one of the highlights of a woman’s pregnancy. In fact, checking the rate and rhythm of a baby’s heartbeat with an Doppler ultrasound is a routine part of each visit…
Heart murmurs in children are one of the four primary reasons why a new patient would be referred to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Cardiology’s outpatient office (the other three symptoms are chest pain, passing out (syncope) and irregular heartbeat). Many…
