The objective of our study was to determine the incidence and nature of heart disease found among children with murmurs clinically ambiguous to an expert examiner. The study was a prospective, blinded evaluation of accuracy of the expert examination using echocardiography as the diagnostic standard. The setting of the study was a pediatric cardiology outpatient department. The study comprised 903 outpatients with heart murmur under 21 years old without prior echocardiography or pediatric cardiology consultation. The intervention was echocardiography as clinically indicated for evaluation of heart murmur of uncertain cause. The outcome measure were a comparison of clinical diagnoses with echocardiographic results. In this clinical population, the presence of heart disease correlated with young age at presentation and with the expert examiner's level of suspicion of heart disease. However, 16 of 187 cases in which specific pathology was unsuspected had disease, and 6 of these 16 have had catheter or surgical intervention. Fourteen of the 16 unsuspected had objective indications for echocardiography and the other 2 were examined to allay anxiety. When evaluating very young outpatients with innocent-sounding murmur or older outpatients with innocent-sounding murmur and disconcerting symptoms, signs, or laboratory results, pediatric cardiologists should have a low threshold for echocardiography. Older outpatients with innocent-sounding murmur seldom have heart disease when anxiety is the only indication for echocardiography.

Iron poisoning is the most common cause of overdose mortality in children under six years of age and there are no reports of survival with iron levels > 2687 mumol/L (> 15,000 micrograms/dL). A 22-month-old male was brought to the emergency department by his parents after ingesting an estimated 50 ferrous sulfate tablets (60 mg elemental iron/tablet) several hours earlier. Despite spontaneous emesis and gastric lavage his condition deteriorated and he was found to have a serum iron of 2992 mumol/L (16,706 micrograms/dL). During the first four days in the intensive care unit, he developed coma, metabolic acidosis, hypovolemic and cardiogenic shock, liver failure, coagulopathy and adult respiratory distress syndrome. He was treated with a unique deferoxamine dosage schedule (25 mg/kg/h for 12 h/d x 3 d), mechanical ventilation, Swan-Ganz catheter monitoring, dopamine/nitroprusside therapy, blood product, bicarbonate, electrolyte and volume replacement. After a prolonged hospital course complicated primarily by gastric outlet obstruction he was dismissed on full oral feedings, gaining weight, and neurologically intact. Swan-Ganz catheter monitoring guided the management of this patient's shock, iron-induced cardiac failure, and deferoxamine mesylate induced adult respiratory distress syndrome. Further experience and research is required to determine the most appropriate deferoxamine mesylate dosing schedule and our experience expands the range for possible survival after massive iron overdose.

The precordial catch syndrome is frequently mentioned as part of a long differential diagnosis of chest pain in children. It is an extremely common complaint but remains underrecognized. This review describes the distinctive features of the syndrome and points out that this is not a diagnosis of exclusion. Emphasis is placed on the need for taking a careful history to elicit the diagnostic features of the syndrome and performing a thorough physical examination. Diagnostic testing is usually unnecessary. Familiarity with the features of precordial catch syndrome should be helpful to primary care providers caring for children.