Jacksonville, Florida, March 22, 2006 - Today in the United States, more than one million people are living with congenital heart disease. Eight of every 1,000 infants are born with some type of congenital heart defect, from murmurs to serious disorders that will require cardiac surgical repair.

Thanks to technology like echocardiography, children with congenital heart problems are being diagnosed earlier and interventions are being performed earlier. This results in more survivors of problems that used to take lives and quality of life.

The Cardiovascular Center's two echocardiography laboratories - the inpatient lab located at Wolfson Children's Hospital and the outpatient lab located at 1443 San Marco Blvd. - are among less than 20 pediatric labs in the United States to have achieved accreditation in three modalities:

• pediatric transthoracic
• pediatric transesophageal
• fetal echocardiography.

The ICAEL was established with the support of the American Society of Echocardiography, the American College of Cardiology and the Society of Pediatric Echocardiography to provide a peer review mechanism to encourage and recognize the provision of quality echocardiographic diagnostic evaluations by a process of voluntary accreditation. Accreditation status signifies that the facility has been reviewed by an independent agency, which recognizes the laboratory's commitment to quality testing for the diagnosis of heart disease.

"Because of our commitment to excellence in imaging and accurate diagnosis, we voluntarily submitted our laboratories for the accreditation process," said Jose Ettedgui, MD, medical director of the University of Florida Pediatric Cardiovascular Center. "We are proud that the center has been recognized with accreditation in all three modalities. It affirms the quality of our program."