BACKGROUND : Heart disease in children is frequently diagnosed late in life. This study aimed to establish and validate a scoring system to screen for heart disease in children, based on clinical examinations to accelerate referral. METHODS : This 2-phase cross-sectional study was conducted in pediatric cardiology outpatients and emergency room Ngoerah Hospital, Bali, Indonesia, from January to May 2024 and July to October 2024. Children aged 0–18 who were suspected of having heart disease and willing to be research participants were included in this study. Patients who had already been diagnosed with heart disease and acute lower respiratory tract infection were excluded from the study. The chi-square, multivariate logistic regression, and ROC analysis were performed to identify and validate variables eligible for the scoring system. Phase 1 for generating the score, continued to phase 2 to validate the developed score. RESULTS : Of 310 patients enrolled, 15 were excluded from the study. Congenital heart disease was the dominant condition in this study. The first model of the scoring system, named VEKARD score, consisted of a significant murmur, exercise intolerance, difficulty in breathing, and SpO2 <95%. The second model replaced SpO2 <95% with cyanosis, which can be used if pulse oximetry is not available. Using a sensitivity-first threshold suitable for screening purposes, a cutoff ≥1 for model 1 and cutoff ≥2 for model 2 yielded sensitivities of 85% and 81.8%, respectively. Both models underwent validation in a sample of 241 patients. The results demonstrated good discriminative performance, with AUC values of 0.859 for model 1 and 0.853 for model 2. CONCLUSIONS The VEKARD score can be used to enhance pediatric heart disease screening and accelerate referral to tertiary healthcare facilities, thereby preventing delays in treatment.
children ; heart disease ; heart murmur ; prediction ; score