Ronald McDonald® Children's Hospital

Loyola University Health System is a national leader in cardiovascular medicine, including the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric and congenital cardiovascular disease. Our cardiovascular specialists include cardiologists, congenital heart surgeons, cardiology nurse specialists and technical staff who are specially trained to care for infants, children and adolescents with suspected or proven cardiovascular disease. We also have multidisciplinary teams of cardiovascular specialists who work with other specialists to organize optimal care for expectant mothers whose fetus may have a heart problem, and for adolescents with congenital heart disease who are transitioning care into our Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic.

General Pediatric Cardiology Clinic

Evaluation and management of infants and children with suspected or proven cardiovascular disease, including:

• Common concerns such as heart murmurs, chest pain, fainting, palpitations, elevated blood pressure, and elevated blood lipid levels.
• Structural / congenital heart disease.
• Genetic diseases at risk for associated cardiovascular problems (e.g., Marfan syndrome, Down syndrome, Turner syndrome, Williams syndrome, 22q deletion syndrome, and many others).

Congenital Heart Surgery / Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery

Consultation and inpatient surgical treatment of:

• Congenital heart disease in infants, children, adolescents and adults.
• Thoracic skeletal deformities (e.g., pectus excavatum or carinatum).
• Pulmonary (lung) malformations.

Congenital heart disease diagnostics

Designed to provide optimal noninvasive imaging and functional assessments across the entire spectrum of pediatric and congenital cardiovascular disease, this service incorporates cardiologists and technical staff with special training and expertise in:

• Echocardiography (including transthoracic and transesophageal studies, stress echocardiography, 3D echocardiography).
• Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
• Cardiac computed tomography.
• Cardiopulmonary exercise testing.

Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiac Catheterization

State-of-the-art cardiac catheterization laboratory facilities where highly trained congenital heart disease experts diagnose and treat a wide variety of common and complex congenital heart defects, including:

• Preoperative diagnosis of heart problems not already and completely defined by noninvasive methods.
• Transcatheter device closure of atrial septal defects, patent ductus arteriosus and ventricular septal defects.
• Transcatheter balloon valvuloplasty of congenitally obstructed (stenotic) heart valves.
• Transcatheter balloon and stent angioplasty of vascular obstructions.
• Transcatheter valve repair and replacement for certain congenital or postoperative valve disorders.

Pediatric & Congenital Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacing

Advanced evaluation and management of abnormal heart rhythms or symptoms suspicious for arrhythmia, including:

• Ambulatory ECG (Holter and patient-activated ECG event monitors).
• Signal-averaged ECG.
• External continuous mobile cardiac telemetry.
• Transesophageal electrophysiology testing.
• Intracardiac electrophysiology testing.
• Catheter-directed radiofrequency and cryothermic ablation for atrial and ventricular arrhythmias.
• Pacemaker implantation and follow-up.
• Genetic testing for hereditary arrhythmia syndromes (e.g., long QT syndrome, Brugada syndrome).

Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care

Multidisciplinary care of the critically ill infant or child before and after congenital heart surgery, during an unstable cardiac arrhythmia, or suffering from severe heart failure.

Fetal Cardiology Clinic

Multidisciplinary care of the expectant mother whose fetus may have a heart problem, including:

• Fetal echocardiography to diagnosis structural congenital heart disease and/or cardiac dysfunction in the fetus.
• Fetal arrhythmia evaluation and treatment.
• Assist in the diagnosis of hereditary cardiovascular disease.

Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic

Multidisciplinary care of the adolescent and adult patient who has grown up with congenital heart disease.

Advanced Heart Failure and Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic

In conjunction with Loyola’s heart transplantation program and other regional pediatric transplantation programs, this multidisciplinary team of cardiologists and nurse specialists helps to manage patients with congenital heart disease and a variety of heart muscle problems (cardiomyopathy) who need close medical surveillance of chronic heart failure. If these patients develop significant elevation of blood pressure in the lung circulation (pulmonary hypertension), additional specialists in that field can assist with novel therapeutic options and identify selected patients who may benefit from lung transplantation.