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Murmur Evaluation

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Textbook of Clinical Pediatrics

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Finding a cardiac murmur during a physical examination can be a source of frustration and anxiety for a pediatric provider. Perhaps even more challenging than correctly identifying the source of a new murmur is explaining the finding to the parents of the patient. A systematic approach to evaluating cardiac murmurs allows the development of tools to help identify pathologic and non-pathologic murmurs and provides a framework for discussing findings with parents to provide reassurance or the need for further evaluation.

Definition

A cardiac murmur is audible turbulent sound waves in the range from 20 to 20,000 Hz that originate from the heart and vascular system. Most murmurs are just the normal sound of blood flowing through the heart and blood vessels, but murmurs may also occur due to structural heart disease such as a ventricular septal defect. Murmurs in a structurally normal heart are often termed as flow, functional, innocent, or benign. Murmurs occurring from a structural heart...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Heart Center, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle Children’s Hospital, 4800 Sand Point Way NE, 98105, Seattle, WA, USA

    Prof. Jeffrey A. Conwell M.D., FAAP, FACC (Associate Professor Pediatrics)

Authors
  1. Prof. Jeffrey A. Conwell M.D., FAAP, FACC
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Correspondence to Jeffrey A. Conwell M.D., FAAP, FACC .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

    Abdelaziz Y. Elzouki (Professor of Pediatrics) (Professor of Pediatrics)

  2. National Center of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (NCAAI), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Harb A. Harfi (Director) (Director)

  3. Consultant Pediatric Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Islamic Hospital, Amman, Jordan

    Hisham M. Nazer

  4. Seattle Children's Hospital University of Washington, School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA

    F. Bruder Stapleton (Professor and Chair Department of Pediatrics) (Professor and Chair Department of Pediatrics)

  5. Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Woman and Infants Hospital, Providence, RI, USA

    William Oh (Professor of Pediatrics) (Professor of Pediatrics)

  6. University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Richard J. Whitley (Professor of Pediatrics) (Professor of Pediatrics)

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Conwell, J.A. (2012). Murmur Evaluation. In: Elzouki, A.Y., Harfi, H.A., Nazer, H.M., Stapleton, F.B., Oh, W., Whitley, R.J. (eds) Textbook of Clinical Pediatrics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02202-9_247

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02202-9_247

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-02201-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-02202-9

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