The Developing Heart: A ‘History’ of Pediatric Cardiology: (163 Developments in Cardiovascular Medicine)

Paediatric cardiology is celebrating, in the 1990s, the 50th anniversary of the beginnings of the age of therapy. This informal text describes how the discipline grew from the era of pathologic anatomy to the dawn of therapy - the beginnings of closed heart surgery between 1939 and 1945. That dawn ushered in a half-century of change and growth, leading from clinico-physiologic correlations through the start of open heart surgery in the 1950s. This text celebrates some of the achievements of this vivid and heroic age and describes how, in the mid-1970s, new surgical and medical approaches, including prostaglandins and Doppler echocardiography, led to successful cardiac treatment in infancy, the "infant era". Interventional cardiology and the study of childhood arrhythmias began. In the 1990s, a new era emphasising molecular biology and cardiac development is growing from the tools and concepts of the past. The four eras have focused on pathologic anatomy, clinicophysiologic correlations and surgery, heart problems in infancy, and now the developing heart.

Table of Contents:
A: Pathologic Anatomy, The Pre-Therapeutic Era.- 1 Prior to William Harvey.- 2 From Harvey to the Mid 19th Century.- 3 Late 19th, Early 20th Century.- B: Therapeutic Era, Clinicophysiologic Correlations, Surgery.- 4 The Dawn of Therapy, 19305–1955.- 5 Open Heart Surgery, 1955–Mid 1970s.- C: Infant Cardiology Era.- 6 Infant Era 19705 to 1990.- 7 Development of Pediatric Cardiology.- D: Developmental Era: Perspectives.- 8 Developmental Era the 1990s and beyond.- 9 Ethics and Public Policy.

Review :
`As indicated by the authors of this slim, but immensely readable tome, the turn of the twentieth century is a propitious time to consider the history of cardiology in the young. As they also indicate, the decade of the 1990s marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of surgery for children's heart disease. This thread, the importance of cardiac surgery and its link to diagnostic pediatric cardiology, runs throughout the book. I enjoyed reading this book, and I recommend it to all who are concerned with the field. It should be compulsory reading for all who intend to practise as pediatric cardiologists or pediatric cardiac surgeons.' Robert H. Anderson, Cardiology in the Young