What causes heart murmurs? Be careful of congenital heart disease!

When many people have a heart examination, the doctor often tells us that they have a heart murmur. Many people will judge heart murmur as one of the manifestations of congenital heart disease, but this is not the only feature. The discovery of a heart murmur does not necessarily mean that there is congenital heart disease. Other diagnoses are needed to ensure a reasonable diagnosis.

Heart murmur is one of the bases for judging congenital heart disease, but it is not the only basis, and not all heart murmurs indicate that the child has congenital heart disease. When parents find that their children have heart murmurs, they should not panic. They need to interpret this abnormal phenomenon rationally and scientifically and make the most appropriate treatment plan.

1. Identify the type of noise:

Clinically, heart murmurs are generally divided into two types: physiological murmurs and pathological murmurs. Heart murmurs caused by congenital heart disease are pathological murmurs. There are obvious differences in the characteristics of these two types of noise. Parents can preliminarily judge the category of the noise by observing the characteristics of the noise. Physiological murmurs are mainly caused by hypoxia and reduced blood viscosity in children, but there is no abnormality in the child's heart structure itself, and they will generally disappear automatically as the child grows older. Children with pathological murmurs generally have characteristics such as shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, poor tolerance to physical activities, and are often accompanied by heart malformations.

Compared with physiological murmurs, pathological murmurs are rough in tone, louder, have a wider transmission range, and last longer. When parents find that their children have heart murmurs, they should go to the hospital for a heart stethoscope. If it is a physiological murmur, they should pay attention to daily nutrition and health care. If it is a pathological murmur, further examination is needed.

2. Do not relax your vigilance against physiological murmurs:

Babies with physiological murmurs generally do not have abnormal blood flow. Physiological murmurs are more common in children over 2 to 3 years old, most commonly between 3 and 7 years old. As they grow older, their organ functions gradually mature, their heart valve functions become complete, and physiological murmurs will disappear naturally. However, if the murmur persists, even after the child goes to school, it is recommended to go to the hospital for a check-up to see if there is any abnormality in the heart structure or blood flow. In addition, colds, fevers, hyperthyroidism, etc. in childhood are also one of the causes of physiological murmurs. These diseases must be treated thoroughly as soon as possible.

3. Careful examination is also required even if there is no heart murmur:

If no heart murmur is detected after auscultation, excluding factors such as the doctor's level and work errors, it can be inferred that the child's heart valves and morphology are normal and there is no abnormal blood flow. However, we cannot let our guard down. It is best to do an electrocardiogram and echocardiogram just in case.

If parents find that their child has a heart murmur, they should not be overly nervous, otherwise it will cause mental and psychological burden on the child. You should go to the hospital for examination as soon as possible. After the doctor's auscultation, he will be able to quickly determine whether it is physiological or pathological. For some conditions that are not easy to determine, further auxiliary examinations can be done, such as chest X-rays, electrocardiograms, cardiac color ultrasound, or cardiac catheterization examinations.