Cardiac conditions

Heart Murmurs & Heart Valve Disease

A heart murmur is the phrase used to describe turbulent blood flow heard when listening to a heart with a stethoscope.

Heart murmurs may be entirely normal (physiological) and such physiological murmurs are frequently heard in young adults and pregnant women. Heart murmurs may however suggest an abnormality with blood flow either across valves or across other connections between two chambers of the heart. An echocardiogram may be organised to determine the cause of a heart murmur, although a simple clinical examination with a stethoscope may be sufficient to confirm that a murmur is benign.