Counseling and informed consent: the experience in a pediatric cardiology unit. How to communicate a pathological diagnosis.

The aim of our study was to create an operative scheme for conveying a pathological diagnosis with emphasis on communication strategies. In order to check the validity of the scheme, parents of 122 of our patients were contacted by an outside observer and were asked to answer anonymously to a questionnaire concerning their experience in our unit. The questionnaire has been structured in three parts in order to verify (1) the quality of the communication of the diagnosis, (2) the team-patient relationship and (3) the comparison between our unit and the others.

Supraventricular tachycardia in neonates: antiarrhythmic drug choice dilemma.

Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), being atrioventricular reentry the underlying mechanism, is the most frequently tachyarrhythmia requiring a medical treatment in infants with no cardiac disease. The acute treatment of a single episode of SVT has generally an excellent prognosis. An antiarrhythmic prophylaxis of SVT recurrences is usually recommended during the first year of life.