Causes of heart murmurs in children

Children are a matter of great concern to family members. If a child shows any abnormal behavior, the family members will definitely be very worried and not know how to deal with it. We recommend that parents and friends learn some methods of caring for children in daily life. Once a child becomes ill, they should deal with it in a timely manner. Some children are prone to symptoms of heart murmurs. Below we analyze the causes of heart murmurs in children.

During physical examinations, doctors may hear mild heart murmurs in some children. Many parents believe that a murmur means there is a heart problem, so they take their children to seek medical treatment blindly. In fact, the child’s heart may not really have problems.

Some murmurs are signs of heart disease, while others have no pathological significance. That is, some children may have a heart murmur but do not have heart disease. The murmur is caused by the enhanced vibration of blood flow in the pulmonary artery. The murmur produced by this vibration is high-pitched and soft, but not very loud, generally not exceeding grade II, and is not conducted. It is often heard at the apex of the left chest or in the second intercostal space at the left edge of the sternum. It is usually more obvious when the child has a fever, cries, or exercises vigorously, and it weakens after the fever subsides and when the child is quiet. This heart murmur is not a symbol of heart disease, nor is it a congenital heart disease. We call it a "functional murmur" or "harmless murmur", which will not affect the child's growth and development. Physiological murmurs in children usually first appear in infancy, increase in number in children aged 2 to 3 years old, and are most common in children aged 3 to 7 years old. As people age, their organ functions mature, their heart valves become more functional, and physiological murmurs disappear naturally.

But some noises are loud, rough, and transmitted in a certain direction. We call this kind of noise "pathological noise." It is common in children with congenital heart disease. It is due to the influence of certain factors during the development of the heart during the embryonic period, resulting in abnormal channels or septal defects. Because there are abnormal channels between various parts of the heart, that is, the normal channels are too narrow, when the blood circulates, the blood flows like the rushing water of the Yangtze River into its narrowed branch rivers, causing whirlpools and noise. Children with congenital heart disease will have their growth and development affected. Some will have palpitations and shortness of breath when they move a little, some will suffer from frequent pneumonia, and some will suffer from cyanosis due to lack of oxygen. In short, it is different from normal children of the same age.

If parents find their child has a heart murmur, they should not be overly nervous, otherwise it will cause some unnecessary mental and psychological burden on the child. They should go to the hospital for examination. Generally, it is not difficult for doctors to distinguish the boundary between physiological and pathological murmurs. After auscultation, the doctor will quickly make a clear judgment. For some murmurs that are not easy to identify, further auxiliary examinations may be performed, such as chest X-rays, electrocardiograms, B-type ultrasound cardiac sector scans, etc.

In the above article, we introduced a symptom that may occur in children, that is, heart murmur. We know that there are many causes of heart murmurs. The above article gives us a detailed introduction to the causes of heart murmurs in children. I believe everyone has understood it.