- Main symptoms
- What causes heart murmur
- Infant heart murmur
- Heart murmur in adults
- How to treat
- Treatment with medicines
- Treatment with surgery
- Heart murmur in pregnancy
The murmur is a sound of a turbulence suffered by the blood during the passage through the heart, when crossing its valves or hitting its muscles. Not every murmur indicates heart disease, as it happens in many healthy people, being, in these cases, called a physiological or functional murmur.
However, the murmur can also indicate a defect in the heart valves, in the heart muscles or a disease that changes the speed of the blood flow, such as rheumatic fever, anemia, mitral valve prolapse or congenital diseases, for example.
In some cases these situations can cause symptoms such as shortness of breath, swelling in the body and palpitations and, in these situations, treatment should be carried out as soon as possible, using drugs or performing surgery, under the guidance of the cardiologist.
Main symptoms
The heart murmur is usually not accompanied by other signs or symptoms, and its presence alone is not serious. However, when the murmur is caused by a disease that causes difficulties in the functioning of the heart, symptoms may appear that indicate difficulties in pumping blood and oxygenating the body's cells.
Some of the main symptoms are:
- Shortness of breath; Cough; Palpitations; Weakness.
In babies, it is common to notice the difficulty in breastfeeding, weakness and the presence of a purplish mouth and hands, and this happens due to the difficulty in blood oxygenation, since the heart does not function properly.
What causes heart murmur
Heart murmur is a sign, which can be physiological, but it can also indicate some type of alteration or disease, for various causes, both in adults and children.
Infant heart murmur
In babies and children, the main cause of murmur is benign and disappears over time, usually due to the lack of development of the heart structures, which may be disproportionate.
However, it can also happen due to the presence of a congenital disease in the formation of the heart, which is already born with the child, due to genetic diseases or intercurrences during pregnancy, such as rubella infection, use of some medicines, alcoholism or drug use by the of the pregnant. There are several types, but the most common defects that can cause breath are:
- Defects in the chambers or cardiac valves, such as mitral valve prolapse, bicuspid aortic valve, aortic stenosis or coarctation of the aorta, for example; Communication between the chambers of the heart, which can happen due to a delay or defect in the closing of the muscles of the cardiac chambers, and some examples are the persistence of the ductus arteriosus, interatrial or interventricular communications, defects in the atrioventricular septum and the tetralogy of Fallot.
Mild situations can be monitored by the pediatric cardiologist, or improved with the use of drugs, such as anti-inflammatory drugs, used in the ductus arteriosus. However, when the change is severe, to the point of causing symptoms such as a mouth and purple limbs, it is important to schedule surgery.
Learn more about how to identify congenital heart disease.
Heart murmur in adults
Heart murmur in adults also does not indicate the presence of disease, and, in many cases, it is possible to live with it normally, and may even practice physical exercises after being released by the cardiologist. However, the presence of this sign can also indicate the existence of a change, such as:
- Narrowing of one or more valves of the heart, called stenosis, due to diseases such as rheumatic fever, calcification by age, tumor or inflammation due to a heart infection, for example, which prevent the free passage of blood during the heartbeat; Insufficiency of one or more valves, due to diseases such as prolapse of the mitral valve, rheumatic fever, dilation or hypertrophy of the heart or some type of alteration that prevents the correct closure of the valves during pumping of the heart; Diseases that alter the blood flow, such as anemia or hyperthyroidism, which cause the blood to swirl during its passage.
The diagnosis of heart murmur can be made by the general practitioner or cardiologist during the clinical examination of auscultation of the heart, and its confirmation is made by imaging exams, such as echocardiography.
How to treat
In most cases, the treatment of physiological heart murmur is not necessary, with a follow-up every 6 or 12 months with the cardiologist. However, if there are symptoms or clinical manifestations of any disease, the heart needs to be treated, using drugs or surgery.
Treatment with medicines
Treatment involves medications to control the pressure and facilitate the work of the heart, with drugs that control its frequency such as propranolol, metoprolol, verapamil or digoxin, which decrease the accumulation of fluids in the lungs, such as diuretics, and which control the pressure and facilitate the passage of blood through the vessels, such as hydralazine and enalapril.
Treatment with surgery
Surgery is indicated by the cardiologist and cardiac surgeon, after evaluating factors such as symptoms that do not improve with medication, severity of the defect in the heart and the presence of other signs, such as heart failure or arrhythmia.
The surgery options are:
- Correction of the valve by balloon, made with the introduction of a catheter and insufflation of a balloon, being more indicated for cases of narrowing; Correction by surgery, made with the opening of the chest and heart to correct the defect in the valve or muscle; Valve replacement surgery, which can be replaced by a synthetic or metal valve.
The type of surgery also varies according to each case and with the recommendation of the cardiologist and cardiac surgeon.
The initial recovery from cardiac surgery is usually done in the ICU for about 1 to 2 days. Then the person will continue to be admitted to the hospital, where he will undergo cardiologist evaluations until he can go home, where he will spend a few weeks effortlessly and recovering.
In the recovery period, it is important to be careful with a healthy diet and physical therapy. Find out more details about the post-operative of cardiac surgery.
Heart murmur in pregnancy
In women who had some kind of silent heart defect or mild heart murmur, pregnancy can cause clinical decompensation, causing symptoms such as shortness of breath and palpitations. This is because, during this period, there is an increase in the volume of blood and the amount of blood pumped by the heart, which requires more work from the organ. Find out more about the possible causes of shortness of breath in pregnancy.
In these cases, treatment with medication can be done to control the symptoms, and if there is no improvement and surgery is necessary, it is preferably done after the second trimester, when the pregnancy is more stable.
