Pediatric stress echocardiography

Abstract

The rationale for applying stress echocardiography in children is not different from application of the technique in adults. Sick children may need cardiac stress imaging, and stress echocardiography is becoming more common in the pediatric population [2]. Obviously, to perform these procedures in the most adequate way, proper training of personnel and staffing of the pediatric stress laboratory are required to ensure the safety of patients and that the desired testing information is obtained. For these reasons, and as recommended by a recent 2006 statement of the American Heart Association (AHA), pediatric testing should remain an integral part of pediatric cardiology training [3]. The versatility of stress echocardiography is ideally suited to tailor the most appropriate test to the individual patient, with specific signs used to address the particular diagnostic question in the individual patient (Table 37.1).