Heart murmurs

What are the types of heart murmurs?

Sometimes, heart murmurs may be present at birth, called congenital murmurs, or even develop at a later stage in life. Heart murmurs are broadly of two types:

Harmless/innocent: Many of the heart murmurs may not need treatment. These are called harmless/innocent murmurs. These can occur as a result of rapid blood flow through the heart in certain situations like:

• Anaemia
• Fever
• Hyperthyroidism
• Physical activity or exercise
• Pregnancy

Innocent heart murmurs may either disappear with time or can last longer without any health issues.

Abnormal heart murmurs: These murmurs may be an indication of underlying heart problem and may require treatment by a cardiologist.

What are the causes for abnormal heart murmurs?

Abnormal murmurs can be seen in babies, children or adults.

Causes for abnormal heart murmurs in babies are:

Any kind of structural defect or congenital heart defect like:

• Septal defects: Holes in the heart or cardiac shunts. Depending on the size of the hole and its location, the resultant heart murmurs may or may not be serious.
• Defects in heart valves: Abnormality associated with inadequate bloodflow through the valve i.e narrowing of the valve (stenosis) or improper closure leading to leakage or back flow (regurgitation).

Causes for abnormal heart murmurs in children and adults include:

Infections or conditions leading to damage of heart structure like:

• Valve calcification: Mitral stenosis, aortic valve stenosis
• Endocarditis: Caused due to bacterial infection within the heart tissues and valves
• Rheumatic fever: Caused due to a throat infection, specifically caused by Streptococcus,further affecting the heart valves.

How are heart murmurs diagnosed?

Heart murmurs can be diagnosed by a cardiologist with:

• Medical history
• Physical examination and auscultation with stethoscope
• Testsif cardiologist suspects the murmurs to be abnormal
  • Chest X-ray
  • Electrocardiogram (ECG)
  • Echocardiogram
  • Cardiac catheterization: To measure the pressure in heart chambers
  • Blood tests
  • Doppler echocardiography
    

Heart surgery recovery and rehabilitation:

The kind of heart disease and the type of surgery governs the recovery time. It usually takes 6-12 months to recover fully and resume a normal lifestyle. Your healthcare team shall advice you on:

• Care of the incision site
• Identifying signs of infection
• Cardiac rehabilitation exercises and physiotherapy
• Follow up appointments
• Medicines
• Emergency advice
• Lifestyle changes like quitting smoking, diet management, physical activity and stress management

How to choose the best cardiologist for abnormal heart murmurs? What affects the cost of treatment?

For treatment of heart murmurs, one should select a hospital with the availability of an experienced cardiologist or pediatric cardiologist for kids, cardiothoracic surgeon and infrastructure support like cath lab, advanced OT, cardiac care ICUs and lab support.

Cost of treatment may depend on factors like:

• Type of underlying disease and treatment, overall health of the patient
• Technical expertise and infrastructure requirements
• Corrective surgeries, cost of consumables like valves, medications etc
• Length of stay in the hospital
• Tests required

To know more about heart murmurs, you can request for a call back and our Heart Murmur specialist will call you and answer all your queries.

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