Heart murmur echocardiography
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Echocardiography
Accurate Auscultation versus Echocardiography
The availability of echocardiography does not eliminate the need for properly performed auscultation of the heart.
Although echocardiography provides additional information in many patients and can even provide the correct etiology of various systolic and diastolic murmurs, it is an unnecessary step in many patients with innocent murmurs. Echocardiography can even lead to a false diagnosis of echocardiographic heart disease.
Often, a mild valvular regurgitant jet, detected by color-flow Doppler techniques, is not associated with an audible murmur despite optimal auscultation. Such regurgitant jets usually do not indicate clinical heart disease. Trivial mitral regurgitation can be detected by Doppler in up to 45 % of normal individuals; tricuspid regurgitation in up to 70 %; and pulmonic regurgitation in up to 88 %.
Normal aortic regurgitation is encountered much less frequently, and its incidence increases with advancing age. Newly developed small handheld echocardiographic detectors are highly unlikely to replace the stethoscope. [1]
References
- ↑ Fuster V, Hurst's The Heart. 12th edition, 2008 ISBN 9780071499286