Types of Murmurs

With an innocent heart murmur, the heart is perfectly normal. The murmur in this case is simply the normal sound that blood is making as it flows through the heart. There are a number of different innocent heart murmurs.

Seven types of normal systolic murmurs and three types of normal continuous murmurs are known . 1 Normal systolic murmurs include the vibratory murmur, the main pulmonary artery murmur, the branch pulmonary artery murmur of the neonate, the supraclavicular systolic murmur, the systolic mammary souffle, the aortic systolic murmur of older adults, and the cardiorespiratory systolic murmur.

Peripheral pulmonic stenosis (PPS), also referred to as peripheral pulmonary stenosis or pulmonary branch stenosis, is a narrowing within one or more branches of the pulmonary arteries that manifests on physical exam as a systolic ejection murmur in infants. This murmur is often an incidental finding in neonates.

Still's murmur (also known as vibratory murmur) is a common type of benign or "innocent" functional heart murmur that is not associated with any sort of cardiac disorder or any other medical condition.

What is aortic valve stenosis (AS)? Aortic stenosis is one of the most common and most serious valve disease problems. Aortic stenosis is a narrowing of the aortic valve opening. Aortic stenosis restricts the blood flow from the left ventricle to the aorta and may also affect the pressure in the left atrium.

A venous hum which is loud enough may confuse the listener with a patent ductus arteriosis, another continuous murmur. Typically, the murmur of venous hum can be obliterated by brief digital pressure on the ipsilateral internal jugular vein.

Vessel/Outflow Tract Narrowing (Stenosis) Narrowing in the lung vessels or aorta can result in an abnormal systolic murmur. Similarly, if there is muscular narrowing that prevents blood from leaving the pumping chambers, this can cause a murmur. Sometimes narrowing in the arteries supplying the kidneys can be heard in the abdomen.