Pediatric tele-echocardiography in the diagnosis of congenital heart diseases in a regional referral hospital in eastern Bhutan.

Introduction: Congenital Heart Diseases are the commonest birth defects and the most common reason for out-country referral of pediatric patients in Bhutan.Without any qualified pediatric cardiologists in the country, early diagnosis and appropriate care of pediatric cardiac patients is often delayed or inappropriate. Collaboration through telemedicine between general pediatrician and pediatric cardiologist can improve the diagnosis of congenital heart diseases in Bhutan. Methods: Pediatric patients clinically suspected to have congenital heart diseases underwent Echocardiography at Mongar regional referral hospital. The Echocardiograms, performed by general pediatrician, were e-mailed to Pediatric Cardiologist working in UK, who gave the diagnosis after viewing the Echo-loops. This was compared with the final diagnosis made at tertiary cardiac centre in India.Results: 30 echocardiograms performed by general pediatrician at Mongar Hospital in eastern Bhutan were mailed to Pediatric Cardiologist working in UK. Of the thirty cases, 20 required no immediate referral and were put on medications and follow up plans. 10 of the 30 cases required early referral to tertiary care hospital in India. There was excellent concordance between the diagnosis made through tele-echocardiology and the final diagnosis made at tertiary cardiac centre. Conclusions: Tele-echocardiography between a general Pediatrician and a Pediatric Cardiologist can greatly enhance the diagnosis of congenital heart diseases in children.

A survey of the indications for early closure of ostium secundum atrial septal defects and subsequent progress of children in whom this has been undertaken.

Objectives: Closure of isolated secundum atrial septal defect (ASD) is generally recommended at the age of 4 to 5 years. However, there are children with isolated secundum ASDs in whom early closure is performed. The aim of this study is to describe the conditions that led to the decision for early closure and to determine whether these conditions were resolved by means of closure of the defect. Methods: The records of 16 patients who underwent surgical closure of isolated ASD before 24 month of life from 2001 to 2010 at Southampton University Hospital were scrutinised to collect data. Results: There were eight patients with recurrent respiratory tract infections and failure to thrive, three with only recurrent respiratory tract infection, two with evidence of high pulmonary pressures and one with heart failure. Two patients were asymptomatic but had large defects with significant right sided volume overloading. All patients survived surgery and most of them had an uneventful postoperative period. All patients showed clear improvement of their symptoms during the follow up period. Two patients continued to fail to thrive despite closure of ASD but both had other problems to account for the failure to thrive. Conclusion: All symptomatic patients with ostium secundum ASD improved following closure of the ASD before two years of age. Co-existing chromosomal or non cardiac anomalies can be associated with a continued tendency to a poor weight gain after ASD closure.