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Department of Pediatrics
The WVUPC (West Virginia University Physicians of Charleston) Clinic is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 to 4:30 for appointments. Dr. John Eckerd sees outpatient referrals in clinic 5 days a week, and hospital patients as requested.
The diagnostic evaluation of a child suspected of having congenital heart disease should proceed with a careful history, physical examination, electrocardiograph, and possibly an echocardiogram. A systematic approach for the evaluation of patients with CHD should be used to assure complete classification of cardiovascular morphology and physiology. ECHOCARDIOGRAPH SERVICE PROVIDED Echocardiography is an ultrasound examination of the heart. The examination is used to determine the thickness of the walls, the structure of the heart, the health of the valves, and the way in which the walls move when exercising or resting. The two-dimensional echocardiogram allows visualization of spatial relationships of the cardiac structures in the beating heart. Anatomic details previously requiring cardiac cath are now easily visualized noninvasively, with little or no risk to the patient. Analysis of valve structure and function often is superior to that obtained by catheterization. |
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The Pediatrics Department of the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center of West Virginia University Charleston Division is ready to care for the health needs of children in southern West Virginia by offering Pediatric Cardiology services to pediatricians, family practitioners, and other primary care physicians. 
Dr. Eckerd’s specialty involves understanding the combination of genetic and environmental causes that create heart disease in children. Congenital heart disease may be either genetic or acquired. Congenital heart disease is present in about 8 of every 1000 babies. About half of congenital heart defects are relatively minor, but half may be significant.