Heart murmur

Most heart murmurs are mild and won't harm your child. Still, our expert cardiologists provide accurate testing to rule out the possibility of an underlying heart condition.

What is a heart murmur?

A heart murmur is whooshing or rasping sound heard in the heart, similar to the sound of water flowing in a river. In certain cases, this is caused by blood flowing abnormally but most heart murmurs are harmless (innocent) and children eventually grow out of them. However, heart murmurs in kids may occasionally point to an underlying heart condition. If so, our expert cardiologists are here to help determine the cause.

Heart murmur causes

Heart murmurs are often simply the result of the sound that normal blood flow creates in the heart. In the case of young patients, murmurs can be easily heard due to the small distance between the stethoscope and the heart. This can be thought of as young people having exceptional chest acoustics where it is easier to hear turbulent blood flow in a normal heart.

In rare instances, heart murmurs can be caused from harmless structural imperfections that alter the heart's blood flow. Murmurs may also develop from:

• Fever
• Anemia
• Heart wall holes
• Heart valve leaks
• Narrow blood vessels

Innocent murmurs may be more noticeable during activities that increase your heart rate and may go away completely at times of rest.

Children's heart murmur symptoms

Symptoms for a heart murmur vary due to seriousness of the heart abnormality. Symptoms can include:

• Blue skin, especially in the lips and fingertips
• Chest pain
• Dizziness or fainting
• Poor feeding, eating, or weight gain
• Shortness of breath during exertion

Heart murmur diagnosis

Health care providers can usually hear heart murmurs through a stethoscope. We listen to see how the heart sounds evaluating loudness, duration, pitch, quality, timing and changes with position.

Our experienced cardiologists may also run dialogistic tests to confirm if your child has a heart murmur and to identify any underlying conditions. Tests may include:

• Echocardiogram
• Electrocardiogram
• Chest X-rays
• MRI
• Cardiac catheterization

How to treat heart murmur

In most cases, heart murmur treatments aren't needed and the heart murmur goes away on its own. However, if your child has a murmur caused by another heart condition, our nationally recognized institute can help diagnose, manage and treat the underlying cause.