QUESTION
What is a heart murmur?
Angie, UK
ANSWER
Dear Angie
A heart murmur is the sound heard through a stethoscope if a part of the heart or a closely related structure has a defect. Heart murmurs are usually caused by defects in one or other of the main valves lieing between the top and bottom chambers of the heart and regulating the direction of the blood flow. If a valve is damaged some blood leaks back in the wrong direction when the heart contracts and this causes the characteristic noise we call a murmur. A murmur will also be heard in certain blood vessel defects around the heart and the clinician must be able to differentiate between the sounds in order to try to localise where the problem is. This can be difficult and is one of the main reasons why we refer affected pets to veterinary cardiologists so special imaging can be done. Hope this is helpful.
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