Preventive Cardiology Program

The Center for Preventive Cardiology at Texas Children’s Heart Center is focused on medically managing the risk factors of acquired heart disease in children with a strong family history of cardiac disease, elevated cholesterol, high blood pressure or the diagnosis of Kawasaki disease. Our goal is to prevent future cardiac disease and events such as heart attack and stroke through early detection and intervention and by educating children and their families to better care for themselves.

Abnormal cholesterol and high blood pressure are well-recognized conditions in adults. It surprises many people that these conditions can also arise in childhood and that they lay the foundation for heart disease in adulthood. Research shows that normalizing cholesterol values and reducing high blood pressure in children may help prevent or slow the development of heart disease as they reach adulthood.

At the Center for Preventive Cardiology, our goal is to prevent heart attack, stroke and other acute cardiac events later in life, to decrease mortality, and to increase a child's future quality of life. Typically our patients have abnormal lipid levels, high blood pressure or have been diagnosed with Kawasaki Disease, which can increase the risk for cardiac disease (heart attack and stroke) into adulthood.

Our patients may have other conditions such as liver disease, obesity, diabetes or metabolic syndrome that directly cause them to have lipid or blood pressure abnormalities. Still others, perhaps through a poor diet, lack of physical activity or other lifestyle factors, may be at a higher risk for cardiac disease and on an early pathway to acquired heart disease in adulthood.