The patients of the Pediatric department vary in terms of the disease they have as well as their age. For example, some have congenital heart disease from the birth, and others have developed acquired heart disease like Kawasaki disease in their infancy or childhood, and also there are patients who have arrhythmia which was either recognized subjectively or pointed out in mass screening examination. From the viewpoint of age, we have babies immediately after birth on the one hand, some of them were diagnosed in utero, and grown-ups on the other.

We prepare three wards for the admission of those patients, which have the capacity of one hundred and sixteen in total.

Recognition of the heart anatomy and estimation of the cardiac function are most important in the diagnosis and treatment for the pediatric heart disease. Ultrasonographic technique which has made remarkable progress in these two decadesaffords us clearer understanding of the diseased heart in accompany with classical catheterization and angiographic technique. Further, computerized angiographic imaging(DSA), electron beam tomography(EBT), and magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) help us to grasp the morphology of the heart. We make good use of examinations using radionuclear isotope and stress testing in combination with oxygen consumption measurement for the assessment of the cardiac function.

According to the therapeutic topics, inhalation of nitrogen oxide(NO) gets available clinically and proves to be useful to reduce the pulmonary vascular resistance. Catheter interventions such as coil embolization of the disadvantageous vessels, valvotomy of the stenotic valves, angioplasty for the narrow vessels also have become indispensable.

Most of the patients with congenital heart disease are candidates for the surgical treatment, and we make full cooperation with surgeons both in the outpatient clinic and wards.

We have also many patients of Kawasaki disease of whom coronary and myocardial lesions last after they would have grown up. Their risk factors and prognosis are continuously studied.

Basic research is essential for the elucidation of the condition of the disease and the prevention as much as clinical one. We, in this fields, are carrying out animal experiments on cardiovascular dynamics in relation to the Fontan circulation. And the relation of the vasoactive agents to the pathologic state of the congenital heart disease is also in our concern.