The Detection of Heart Disease in Children

Abstract

A mass field trial was accomplished utilizing a heart sounds tape-recording procedure to detect organic heart disease in school children. The survey involved 35,934 children, with selection of an 8.2 per cent stratified random sample of Chicago elementary public-school children, drawn from eight representative geographic-socioeconomic-racial areas of the city. Of the total base population, 33,026 (91.9 per cent) were recorded. A total of 506 children was recalled for direct auscultation, based on suspicious findings on the tape recordings. Effective detection required that the tapes be interpreted by two specially trained cardiologists. Of the 506 children scheduled for recall, 492 were actually examined; 85 were evaluated as having probable organic heart disease, and were referred for complete work-up. Definite organic heart disease was ultimately diagnosed in 64 children, of whom 48 had congenital heart disease and 16 rheumatic heart disease. The prevalence rate of organic heart disease in the stratifie...