Heart murmurs in premature newborns

If a newborn is born prematurely, it will be harmful to the child's health, especially to the heart. Therefore, many newborns have heart murmurs after being born prematurely. In order to improve your child's heart murmur as soon as possible, let's take a look at what is the premature heart murmur of a newborn? In order for you to understand it as soon as possible, please take a look at the answer below.

During health check-ups or outpatient visits, some babies are sometimes found to have heart murmurs, which makes parents very worried. So if the baby has a heart murmur, does it mean that he has congenital heart disease? Not necessarily. There are two types of heart murmurs: functional murmurs and organic murmurs.

Functional murmurs

Functional murmurs are murmurs that occur even when there is no disease in the heart. For example, some babies usually act like normal children and do not show symptoms of palpitations or shortness of breath during strenuous activities. However, during a physical examination or medical consultation, the doctor may hear a softer heart murmur below grade II. The electrocardiogram and chest X-ray are normal. This is a physiological murmur and does not require special treatment. However, you should go to the hospital for regular check-ups. Once the electrocardiogram or chest X-ray is found to be abnormal, further examination should be conducted to consider whether there is a heart disease.

Organic murmur

An organic murmur is a murmur caused by a heart disease. Such as atrial septal defect and ventricular septal defect in congenital heart diseases, and valvular lesions in rheumatic heart disease. Babies with these diseases can have heart murmurs of grade III or above. They usually show weakness in feeding, and cyanosis of the lips and nail beds occurs during strenuous activities (crying). They also experience palpitations, shortness of breath, and dizziness. Regardless of whether the electrocardiogram or chest X-ray is normal or abnormal, it indicates that the child's heart is sick.

Irregular heartbeat

When an electrocardiogram is performed on infants in a quiet state, 9 out of 10 will have sinus arrhythmia to varying degrees. It is a misunderstanding that people regard an infant's sinus arrhythmia as a heart problem.

Sinus arrhythmia in infants and young children

The autonomic nervous system of infants and young children is not yet fully developed. Therefore, when they breathe, they will reflexively affect the automaticity of the sinoatrial node controlled by the autonomic nervous system more significantly than adults. This is often the main cause of sinus arrhythmia in infants and young children.

Causes of Sinus Arrhythmia

When infants exhale, the expansion of the chest cavity reflexively causes vagal hyperactivity. Hyperactive vagus nerve endings produce acetylcholine, which can reduce the automaticity of the sinus node and thus slow the heart rate. When inhaling, the contraction of the chest cavity reflexively causes sympathetic nerve excitement. Sympathetic nerve excitement releases catecholamines that increase the autonomy of the sinoatrial node, thereby increasing the heart rate.

This article gives a detailed introduction to the heart murmur of premature newborns. There are many reasons for this situation, which have been fully introduced above. Therefore, for many newborns with heart murmurs, in order to allow the children to receive effective conditioning and treatment as soon as possible, it is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of some of the contents introduced above, understand the reasons for this situation, and then provide targeted treatment to allow the children to recover.