Many children have this condition at one time or another. Most heart murmurs are completely normal or 'innocent' and do not affect the health of the child in any way. However, some heart murmurs may be a sign of a heart problem.
Heart murmur
The heart makes the familiar normal “lub” and “dub” sounds which are associated with normal beating and is caused by the closing sound of the valves as the heart squeezes to push blood through the body. A heart murmur is when the heart makes extra sounds in addition to the familiar “lub” and “dub” sounds.
Heart murmurs can be described as an abnormal, extra sound of the heart associated with the beating of the heart. A doctor can usually hear the heart murmur through the use of a stethoscope.
Approximately two thirds of heart murmurs in children are produced by a normal heart and are harmless. While other times, it could be an indication of heart disorder.
During the medical check up of the baby in the first 24 hours and also during routine check ups, a physician listens to the heart of the baby with stethoscope and can detect any unusual sound of the heart apart from “lub-dub” sounds at the first check only.
Heart murmurs can be either innocent or pathological.
Innocent murmurs
Innocent murmur is also known as “functional” or “physiologic” murmur. Innocent heart murmurs are usually very faint, intermittent and occur in a small area of the chest. A baby diagnosed with innocent murmur means the heart of the baby is normal and healthy.
These usually go away on their own, although some people have them their whole lives. These types of murmurs neither require any treatment nor pose any health threat. Anxiety, stress, fever, anemia and overactive thyroid can also cause innocent murmurs.
Pathologic heart murmurs
Pathologic heart murmurs may be due to congenital defects or heart disease. These heart murmurs are very loud, continual, and could be accompanied by clicks or extra heart sounds. Newborn babies whose hearts have not formed correctly (congenital heart disease) will usually have a murmur.
Such type of heart murmurs are caused by structural abnormalities of the heart. Nearly 1 out of every hundred infants born has a heart defect. Babies born with this condition can show signs as early as the first few days of life but many times such children remain healthy until later in childhood. Now-a-days many serious problems can be diagnosed by ultrasound while the baby is still in the womb.
Symptoms
If a newborn baby shows the symptoms such as rapid breathing, difficulty in feeding, cyanosis (blueness in lips) and poor weight gain, swollen abdomen, recurrent chest colds and respiratory infections, swelling in ankles or feet or signs of infection including sore throat than it could be an indication of heart defect.
Call your doctor immediately if you see any of these symptoms in your baby.
Diagnosis
A physician can diagnose the heart murmur as either innocent or pathologic by checking the babies pulse and blood pressure and listening carefully to his heart with a stethoscope. If a suspicious heart sound is detected, the physician will evaluate how breathing, exercise, or change of body position affects the sound.
But still if the doctor is not sure about the murmur type than he/she may ask for few other tests such as chest X-ray (to look at the size, shape, and location of the heart and lungs), ultrasound, oxygen saturation test, MRI ( magnetic resonance imaging) or an electrocardiogram, which records the electrical activity of the heart).
Common types of heart defects
Ventricular Septal Defects (VSD), Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) and Heart muscle disorders (cardiomyopathy) are few of the common heart defects found in children.
1. Ventricular Septal Defects (VSD): It is one of the most common causes of structural heart defects in children. A ventricular septal defect is a hole in the wall of the heart (septum) that separates the left lower chamber (left ventricle) from the right lower chamber (right ventricle).
But the brighter side is that in most of the children the hole will close on its own in the first few years of life.
2. Atrial Septal Defect (ASD): It is an abnormal opening in the wall separating the left and right upper chambers (atria) of the heart. The doctors can now treat effectively this condition by cardiac catheterisation without any need for surgery.
3. Heart muscle disorders (cardiomyopathy): It is a serious disease in which the heart muscle can abnormally become thick or weak. There may be multiple causes including viral infections. This condition can impair the heart's ability to pump blood to the body normally.
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