Some may be born with murmurs others can develop them later in life. Some of the factors that are taken into consideration when it comes to heart murmurs are history of pneumatic fevers, hypertension, and past incidents of heart attacks (www.medicinenet.com).
Diagnosis for Heart Murmurs When a physician is evaluating a heart murmur there are several things that they want to pay attention to like how faint or loud is the sound. While grading a murmur on a scale of 1 to 6 with one being very faint and six being very loud. They will also look to see if the sound is occurring in the cycle of the heartbeat, where in the heart the sound is located and whether or not it can be heard in the neck or the back (www.webmd.com). Sometimes they may want to see how breathing, physical activity, or a certain change in the body position affects the sound. Other diagnostic tests and procedures may be done such as chest x rays, EKG, CT, MRI, and an echocardiography. The chest x-ray will look for shortness in the breath and chest pain that may be a occurring. An EKG is a simple test that can detect and record the heart’s electrical activity. CT and MRI’s can help diagnose heart problems and detect the murmurs. All of these tests will help the physician determine if the patient has a heart