Pediatric Cardiology Specialist Prof.Dr.Ayhan Çevik gave important information about the subject. To define it, heart murmurs are abnormal sounds heard during examination with examination tools called stethoscope and heart listening. However, some diagnoses can be reached with detailed information such as the intensity and quality of these sounds. Not every heart murmur is a sign of disease, and there can be heart disease without a murmur.
A murmur can be heard during examination in many congenital or acquired diseases in childhood heart diseases. While heart murmurs may be a finding that is basically called an innocent murmur without any sign of disease, they can sometimes be one of the first symptoms of an important disease. For this reason, it would be appropriate to evaluate heart murmurs in two separate groups for clarity:
1. Innocent Murmurs: In order to detect such sounds, it can be determined by the intensity, timing of the sounds heard and whether they increase with various factors. These sounds are not a symptom of a heart disease, but sometimes occur physiologically, and sometimes they can be heard by various mechanisms caused by non-cardiac diseases.
2.Pathological or Disease-Related Heart Murmurs: These types of murmurs occur during diseases related to intracardiac structures, valves, or diseases of the great vessels. The most common major diseases are heart holes (such as VSD, ASD, PDA, AVSD), heart valve diseases (such as heart valve stenosis or insufficiency), diseases of the great vessels (such as congenital vascular anomalies or stenosis).
Today, it is preferred to reach the correct diagnosis by performing further examinations after detecting heart murmurs. For this purpose, the most commonly used diagnostic tools are tests such as ECG and Echocardiography that do not cause side effects to the patient. Examination findings of pediatricians are helpful in deciding which patients should undergo further examination. The severity of heart murmurs sometimes increases proportionally with diseases, and sometimes the loud sound may be associated with mild disease (such as a small VSD hole). At this point, it can be interpreted that it is not correct to determine the severity of the disease with the sound or murmur heard in the heart. For this reason, ultrasonography methods called echocardiography are frequently used. After this evaluation, a definitive diagnosis can be reached.
The most important thing to know and remember with heart murmurs and other heart sounds is that the absence of a heart murmur does not mean that there is no heart disease. Some diseases are known to progress silently without a heart murmur. In some cases, when the heart murmur is heard, the disease has advanced and the probability of response to treatment is reduced.
Prof.Dr.Ayhan Çevik said, “In our children with heart murmur, it is recommended to define whether these sounds are primarily a sign of disease or an indication of a physiological condition, and to use diagnostic tools such as echocardiography if necessary. Depending on the assessment made by pediatricians, the necessary further tests can be performed: If the heart sounds and murmurs are of an innocent nature, that is, they are not signs of disease, continuous follow-up and controls are not required. The treatment of murmurs due to diseases is done by treating the cause of these abnormal sounds.