Background: Children often have heart murmurs; referral to a specialist is common. A service for remote auscultation of heart murmurs was established in which heart sounds and short texts were sent as attachment to e-mails. Our aim was to assess the quality of this method.
Material And Methods: Heart sounds from 47 patients with no murmur (n = 7), innocent murmurs (n = 20), or with pathological murmurs (n = 20) were recorded using a sensor-based stethoscope and e-mailed to a computer. The sounds were repeated giving 100 cases, randomly distributed on a CD. Four specialists categorised the cases as having "no murmur", "innocent murmur", or "pathological murmur", recorded assessment time, degree of certainty, and need for referral.
Results: On average 2.1 minutes were spent on each case. Mean sensitivity and specificity were 90% and 98%, respectively. Inter- and intra-observer variability were low (kappa 0.81 and 0.87). 93% of cases with a pathological murmur and 13% with an innocent murmur were recommended for referral.
Interpretation: Telemedical referral of children with heart murmurs to a cardiologist is safe, reduces travelling, and saves time. Skilled auscultation is adequate to detect those with innocent murmurs.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|
Animals (Basel)
January 2025
Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, 3584 CM Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Background: Purring in cats can interfere with cardiac auscultation. If the produced noise is loud enough, purring makes it impossible to perform a meaningful auscultation as it is much louder than heart sounds and murmurs. Our study introduced and tested a new, simple, fear-free, cat-friendly method to stop purring during auscultation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiomed Phys Eng Express
January 2025
Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
Fetal phonocardiography is a well-known auscultation technique for evaluation of fetal health. However, murmurs that are synchronous with the maternal heartbeat can often be heard while listening to fetal heart sounds. Maternal placental murmurs (MPM) could be used to detect maternal cardiovascular and placental abnormalities, but the recorded MPMs are often contaminated by ambient interference and noise.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeart
December 2024
Interventional Center of Valvular Heart Disease, Beijing Anzhen Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
Background: Subclinical leaflet thrombosis (SLT) is a common complication after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Multidimensional CT (MDCT) is the main imaging mortality for the diagnosis of SLT but it enhances the risk of contrast-induced nephropathy. Our study aimed to use an innovative wearable acoustic cardiography (ACG) device to diagnose SLT as an alternative option.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPediatr Cardiol
January 2025
Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey.
Studies on the genetic basis of bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), characterized by a configuration of the aortic valve with two leaflets instead of three, are insufficient. This study aimed to elucidate the possible relationship between BAV and TGF-β1 gene expression levels. Forty-eight pediatric patients diagnosed with isolated BAV and 50 healthy children with innocent heart murmurs were included in the study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiomed Phys Eng Express
December 2024
Department of Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda, Moratuwa, 10400, SRI LANKA.
Cardiovascular diseases rank among the leading causes of mortality worldwide and the early identification of diseases is of paramount importance. This work focuses on developing a novel machine learning-based framework for early detection and classification of heart murmurs by analysing phonocardiogram signals. Our heart murmur detection and classification pipeline encompasses three classification settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!