My doc told me the only reason I have High Grade AV Block is it's congenital. My two kids are now 12 and 13...I was reading that adolescents can start being symptomatic. Should I have them tested - a baseline ECG or something? They are both very active in sports - running, football, pilo's...I truly worry they'll drop one of these days. Would I use their ped or go to a cardiologist?
Thanks!
Tracie

 

 

Since it usually starts off being intermittent it's pretty hard to detect early on. About the only way is to wear a monitor for long enough to catch it. That's going to be hard to justify in healthy kids.

Might help to teach them to take their own pulse, and to check it if they feel strange. If they have some idea of what their pulse does with exercise they would be more likely to notice something going on.

frank

 

I have congenital 3rd degree block and my kids are 12 and 13 also but mom spelled my name a little differently, lol.

Congenital means we were born with it, it is NOT genetic (i.e. something in our genes we can pass on) so our kids have the same chance of getting it that we did- very rare. The only genetic link they've found is women with lupus give birth to babies with a higher rate of CCHB. My mom does not have Lupus so mine is a fluke.

I had both of my kids tested just for the heck of it last year, baseline ekg, all was normal. Unless you have Lupus, odds are very very slim that your kids have anything wrong but if it makes you feel better, an ekg is easy enough to get done. My ped does not do them but refers to the hospital. I wasn't willing to freak the kids out or go to that much trouble so my cardiologist did it as a favor to me (he doesn't see children but he's been my doc since before they were born so he's watched them grow up). It was actually his idea to start with; I expected them to be normal because I researched the heck out of it when they were babies. He was curious, he doesn't have any other patients like me so he wanted to see what their ekg looked like.


Frank, my block was 3rd degree every time they checked me from the time I was diagnosed at age 5, plain as day to see on the ekg even to me. The ped cardio I saw as a child was in a teaching hospital, the room always filled up with curious students when they hooked me up, lol. I think that's pretty normal for congenital, it doesn't progress the way it does if you develop it as an adult. Your connection deteriorated and got severed at some point, mine was never there.


Tracey

 

After I came home from the hospital my 16 yo daughter asked me if my heart block was genetic. In other words could she get it because I have it. I asked my EP that question and he said that they don't know if it could be genetic or not because there have not been any studies tracking adults and their children to see if there is any correlation or not.

My daughter however has had 2 ECG's and 2 echo done, plus a stress test because she has a mild case of scoliosis and a slight pectus excavatum (sunken chest) plus she is very slim. The doctor is monitoring her for a disease related to Marfan's called MASS Phenotype. So far everything is fine, but I see no problems in keeping a watchful eye for a while to ensure her heart health and nip any problems early on.

To put your mind at ease you could get your kids heart rate monitors (Polar, Garmin, Times, etc) to wear when they are active. I wear one now when I exercise so that I work out at a healthy level and don't push myself too hard, but hard enough. They have chest straps and a wrist watch so that they can see their heart rates as they work out.