Selective Screening of Children at Risk of Early Atherosclerosis in the Czech Republic

Overview

Aim:
Verification of the degree of acquaintance of general practitioners for children and adolescents withselective screening of children at risk for early manifestation of atherosclerosis and the way of its practicalexecution.Methods and cohort: In the course of 2002, information from 200 general practitioners for children andadolescents were obtained on the selective screening of children at risk for early manifestation of atherosclerosis.Results: General practitioners for children and adolescents, who are mainly involved in the selective screeningof children at risk of early manifestation of atherosclerosis, are well informed about the problems of coronary heartdisease in the Czech Republic. They are well acquainted with the methods of screening and consider this approachuseful in practice. Their knowledge of therapeutic approaches in the children selected by the screening may beconsidered as somewhat unbalanced. Significant differences were observed among the estimates of individualphysicians concerning the incidence of children with positive cardiovascular anamnesis and those with significantdyslipoproteinemia in the children selected by general pediatricians.Conclusions: Prerequisites for implementation of selective screening of children at risk of early clinicalmanifestation of atherosclerosis have been created within the whole Czech Republic. The efficiency of screeningwill have to be regularly verified by a suitable method.

Key words:
coronary heart disease, selective screening, general practitioner of children and adolescents,knowledge of the methods, approach to screening, estimates of the incidence of children at risk