Systems and methods are provided for monitoring mortality risk in children with congenital cyanotic heart condition such as Tetralogy of Fallot (ToF) including prioritizing ToF patients for medical treatment and determining that a ToF patient is eligible for urgent surgical correction. Some embodiments of the invention determine a prognosis in terms of a predicted survival probability within a timeframe wherein the pediatric subject awaits surgical correction, based on determining the amount of a marker, such as BNP (brain natriuretic peptide) in serial samples of blood plasma from the subject and determining a Tetralogy of Fallot Index (TOFI®) score from the biomarker values. Some embodiments of the invention use the score to determine severity of the heart condition for one or more patients, which may be used for managing treatment, such as scheduling surgery, transfers to available treatment centers, managing medical resources, or predicting costs, including for settings where the resources to perform pediatric cardiac surgery are limited.
Method for monitoring mortality risk in children with tetralogy of fallot