Pediatric Functional Imaging

Exercise testing is useful diagnostic and treatment tool for the assessment of the heart function in children. Exercise test imaging can be done with echocardiography or cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Children’s National Hospital offers Dobutamine stress echocardiography and stress MRI.

The tests are performed at the hospital and some regional outpatient offices. The heart rate and blood pressure are monitored as children walk/run on a treadmill. More than 300 tests are performed each year by the cardiac imaging team to evaluate children with a wide variety of cardiac problems. Children with repaired or unrepaired congenital heart disease, chest pain, irregular heartbeat, asthma, fainting, obesity, high blood pressure and poorly functioning hearts make up the majority of the tests.