Heart Murmur - Interventions That Change Murmur Sounds

Interventions That Change Murmur Sounds

  • Inhalation leads to drop in intrathoracic pressure, which increases the capacity of pulmonary circulation, thereby prolonging ejection time. This will affect the closure of the pulmonary valve. This finding, also called Carvallo's maneuver, has been found by studies to have a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 80% to 88% in detecting murmurs originating in the right heart. specifically positive Carvallo's sign describes the increase in intensity of a tricuspid regurgitation murmur with inspiration.
  • abrupt standing
  • Squatting, by increasing preload
  • Handgrip maneuver, by increasing afterload
  • Valsalva maneuver. One study found the Valsalva maneuver to have a sensitivity of 65%, specificity of 96% in detecting hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM). Both standing and Valsalva maneuver will decrease venous return and subsequently decrease left ventricular filling, resulting in an increase in the loudness of the murmur of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, since outflow obstruction is increased by decreasing preload. Alternatively, squatting increases venous return and thus decreases the murmur. Maximum handgrip exercise also results in a decreased loudness of the murmur.
  • post ectopic potentiation
  • amyl nitrite
  • methoxamine
  • positioning of the patient. That is, putting patients in the left lateral position will allow a murmur in the mitral valve area to be more pronounced.

Read more about this topic:  Heart Murmur

Famous quotes containing the words change, murmur and/or sounds:

    It was palpable, all that wanting: Mother wanting something more, Dad wanting something more, everyone wanting something more. This wasn’t going to do for us fifties girls; we were going to have to change the equation even if it meant . . . abstaining from motherhood, because clearly that was where Mother got caught.
    Anne Taylor Fleming (20th century)

    I believe that a man is converted when first he hears the low, vast murmur of life, of human life, troubling his hitherto unconscious self.
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    half-way up the hill, I see the Past
    Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights,—
    A city in the twilight dim and vast,
    With smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights,—
    And hear above me on the autumnal blast
    The cataract of Death far thundering from the heights.
    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)