Types and Symptoms of Heart Murmurs
Heart murmurs are classified into groups based on when they occur during a heartbeat:
- Systolic: This type of heart murmur occurs when your heart muscle contracts (tightens).
- Diastolic: When your heart muscle relaxes, you may hear a murmur.
- Continuous: When your heart muscle is contracting or relaxing, you may hear a continuous heart murmur.
Continuous and diastolic murmurs are more frequently associated with heart disease. However, every heart murmur needs to be examined.
A heart murmur is not audible to the ear. To hear the noises loud enough, you need a stethoscope.
Healthcare professionals categorize murmurs based on how loud or severe they are. They rate the murmur on a scale of 1 (barely audible even with a stethoscope) to 6 (clearly audible even when the stethoscope isn’t pressed against your skin).
Some heart murmurs are found during a normal medical examination even if they have no symptoms at all. However, based on what’s producing the murmur, you can notice signs like:
- pale skin
- cough that just won’t stop
- a racing heart
- your chest can hurt or feel constricted
- respiration difficulty
- weakness or syncope.