A breeding program with the aim of reducing the prevalence of mitral regurgitation (MR) caused by myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (CKCS) is currently ongoing in Sweden. In this investigation 353 CKCS were selected as a sample of the population and 150 were examined by auscultation for heart murmurs when they reached the age of six years in 2007 and 2009....

OBJECTIVE To determine if heart murmur intensity grading performance can be improved using the heart sounds as an internal reference. METHODS Single-blind controlled trial of 100 medical students, residents, and pediatric attending physicians at a children's hospital. Groups of 1 to 3 participants were alternately assigned to intervention and control groups, reported their method of grading h...

SUMMARY A range-gated pulsed Doppler flowmeter has recently been developed that measures the average velocity of blood flow within a small tear-drop shaped (4 mm by 2 mm) sample volume. Unlike the continuous wave Doppler, the distance from the transducer face to the sampling site can be continuously varied by a range adjustment knob. Twenty patients with cardiac murmurs were evaluated in a noni...

The use of echocardiography, phonocardiography, and spectroanalysis has enhanced the ability to detect prosthetic valve dysfunction even before the onset of symptoms in many patients. Reduction in the intensity of the opening and closing clicks and the appearance of new murmurs have been the most frequently reported observations in predicting prosthetic valve dysfunction. Simultaneous echocardi...

NAB, a nine-year-old Malay female, presented at the age of five months with poor weight gain and recurrent upper respiratory tract infection; it was diagnosed as Tetralogy of Fallot. She had no hypercyanotic spells but was severely restricted in her activities. She was a full-term, spontaneous vertex delivery. Antenatal and postnatal periods were uneventful and her milestones were normal. She w...

murs was evaluated in 36 patients and the results compared with the effects of amyl nitrite and phenylephrine. The isometric handgrip exercise produced immediate, reproducible, and significant increases in heart rate and blood pressure. It also increased the intensity of murmurs due to aortic and mitral regurgitation and mitral stenosis and attenuated the murmurs of left ventricular outflow tra...

The practice of cardiac auscultation is a critical tool used by physicians to detect alterations in the cardiovascular system. A case of both left and right sided endocarditis initially detected by electronic auscultation in a woman with a history of injection drug use is described. The electronic stethoscope, with the ability to amplify heart sounds, established the presence of both a systolic...

CASE HISTORY A 20-year-old female sought advice for diarrhoea and vomiting which followed a holiday in Majorca. She had no other symptoms. Apart from investigation of a cardiac murmur when she was six, past medical history was unremarkable. On examination she appeared healthy, with no fever or dehydration. Her abdomen was normal. Pulse was 100/min, regular, and blood pressure 110/60. Her apex b...

A peculiar non-hypertrophic myocardiopathy is described which occurred in three and possibly five generations of a single family. Clinical features included systolic murmurs, electrocardiographic abnormalities, and sudden cardiac death with a paucity of symptoms of cardiac dysfunction. Pathological studies in three generations showed a striking similarity of cardiac findings including globular ...

The pathology of the heart was studied in 60 patients dying in their tenth decade in a general hospital. The severity of coronary atherosclerosis and the incidence of ischaemic heart disease was lower than in younger geriatric patients. The incidence of minor ;aging' changes was similar to that in younger patients with the exception of mitral valve atheroma where the increase with aging continu...