• Question: what is a heart murmur and how can it affect the human body ?

    Asked by erinmason30 to Anouk, Chris, Judith, Leisha, Seyyed on 20 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Chris Kettle

      Chris Kettle answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      A heart mumour tends to be picked up by a doctor listening to your heart with a stethascope and then confirmed on an electrocardiogram (ECG) which measures the electrical output of your heart. They are called mumours as the doctor hears the usual “lub0dub, lub-dub” sound by maybe a woosh or a mumour too. This can be caused by a hole in the heart (VSD, ASD, PDA, PFO). Usually they are minor and will heal by themselves. They can have no effect or a major effect on the body depending on where they are. The worst case for a mumour would be due to a hole that lets the oxygenated blood spill in to the deoxgenetaed blood. This would mean that deoxygenetaed blood would leave the heart and the patient may feel tired all the time and could be fatal eventually. Most mumours can be treated.

    • Photo: Judith Sleeman

      Judith Sleeman answered on 21 Jun 2012:

      It’s an unusual sound made by the heart as well as the normal heart-beat. It can be caused by a problem with one of the valves separating the chambers of the heart from each other. Usually these problems can be fixed these days.

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