Welcome to the website of the Children's Heart Center of the Schneider Children's Hospital. The Children's Heart Center provides comprehensive, multidisciplinary services for the fetus, newborn, infant, child and adolescent with heart abnormalities. These services include the clinical and scholastic resources of the Schneider Children's Hospital Divisions of:

• Pediatric Cardiology
  
• Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery
  
• Pediatric Critical Care
  
• Neonatology
  
• Pediatric Anesthesiology

In order to better understand the scope of the Children's Heart Center services it is worthwhile to have an understanding of the heart problems that occur in the fetus, newborn, child and adolescent.

Heart Disease in the Fetus, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Overview

Younger patients are most commonly referred to a pediatric cardiologist when a primary care provider recognizes an abnormality on a routine office visit, newborn exam, or in the case of the fetus, screening obstetrical ultrasound. In children and adolescents, referral to a pediatric cardiologist may be prompted by the patient reporting chest discomfort, fainting (syncope) or the primary care provider noting a change in the heart sounds during routine check-up. These patients are referred to the Children's Heart Center for evaluation by the staff of pediatric cardiologists, nurses and technologists skilled in the diagnosis and medical treatment of structural (anatomic), functional or electrical (rhythm) heart abnormalities.

The Normal Heart

The heart develops during fetal life from a simple straight tube into a complex mechanical pump and electrical generator. The architecture of the heart is completed within the first six weeks of a pregnancy. The basic function of the heart is to:

• receive blood low in oxygen from the veins of the body
  
• pump that blood through the lungs to replenish the oxygen
  
• receive the oxygen rich blood back from the lungs
  
• pump the oxygen enriched blood to all parts of the body

The heart performs this work for a lifetime through the interaction of its four chambers and one way doors (valves). The veins of the body return oxygen poor blood to the upper chamber of the right side of the heart (right atrium). The veins of the lungs return oxygen enriched blood to the upper chamber of the left side of the heart (left atrium). The atria advances blood to the hearts lower pumping chambers (right ventricle and left ventricle) across one way doors (tricuspid valve on the right side; mitral valve on the left side). The right ventricle and left ventricle, in turn, pump blood across another set of one way valves (pulmonary valve on the right side; aortic valve on the left side) to arteries (pulmonary artery on the right side; aorta on the left side) that are connected to the lungs and the organs of the body.

The rate at which the heart pumps is determined by the heart's electrical generator located in the right upper chamber. Specialized tissues spread the electrical activity through the heart's upper chambers to a biologic junction box that sends the signal to the lower pumping chambers. The greater the body demand for oxygen, the faster the heart beats..

The proper formation of the chambers (atria and ventricles), blood vessels (veins and arteries) and one way doors (valves) as well as the strength of the heart muscle and regularity of the electrical activity (pulse) are all responsible for the efficient working of this important organ.