Heart Murmur
Murmurs are pathologic heart sounds that are produced as a result of turbulent blood flow that is sufficient to produce audible noise. Most murmurs can only be heard with the assistance of a stethoscope ("on auscultation").
A functional murmur or "physiologic murmur" is a heart murmur that is primarily due to physiologic conditions outside the heart, as opposed to structural defects in the heart itself. Functional murmurs are benign (an "innocent murmur").
Murmurs may also be the result of various problems, such as narrowing or leaking of valves, or the presence of abnormal passages through which blood flows in or near the heart. Such murmurs, known as pathologic murmurs, should be evaluated by an expert.
Heart murmurs are most frequently categorized by timing, into systolic heart murmurs and diastolic heart murmurs. However, continuous murmurs cannot be directly placed into either category.
Read more about Heart Murmur: Classification, Interventions That Change Murmur Sounds, Examples of Anatomic Source of Murmur, Cooing Dove Murmur
Famous quotes containing the words heart and/or murmur:
“It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason. This, then, is faith: God felt by the heart, not by the reason.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“Now entertain conjecture of a time
When creeping murmur and the poring dark
Fills the wide vessel of the universe.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)