• What Is a Heart Murmur?

     
     
    11/04/2014
    A heart murmur is simply a noise made by blood as it travels through the heart and vessels. It does not necessarily imply that there is an abnormality with the heart. In fact, many murmurs are commonly heard in normal children and adults. These are called functional or innocent murmurs.

    Over half of all children will develop an innocent murmur at some time between infancy and adulthood. Murmurs can be caused by heart and vascular abnormalities, such as narrow or leaky valves, narrowing of blood flow through the heart, certain holes between the walls of the heart, as well as narrowed vessels. Murmurs caused by abnormalities are called pathologic murmurs.

    There are a number of different types of murmurs. You can learn about the different types of murmurs here.