Diseases & Conditions

Heart murmurs

A normal heartbeat makes two sounds like "lubb-dupp" (sometimes described as "lub-DUB"), which are the sounds of your heart valves closing. Heart murmurs are abnormal sounds during your heartbeat cycle — such as whooshing or swishing — made by turbulent blood in or near your heart.

Heart murmurs can be present at birth (congenital) or develop later in life. A heart murmur isn't a disease — but murmurs may indicate an underlying heart problem.

Most heart murmurs are harmless (innocent) and don't need treatment, but some heart murmurs may require follow-up tests to be sure the murmur isn't caused by a serious underlying heart condition. Treatment, if needed, is directed at the underlying cause of your heart murmurs.

An innocent heart murmur generally doesn't require treatment because the heart is normal. If innocent murmurs are the result of a condition, such as fever or hyperthyroidism, the murmurs will go away once that condition is treated.

If you have an abnormal heart murmur, treatment may not be necessary. Your doctor may want to monitor the condition over time. If treatment is necessary, it depends on what heart problem is causing your murmur and may include medications or surgery.

Medications
The medication your doctor prescribes depends on the specific heart problem you have. Some medications your doctor might give you:

• Help your heart squeeze harder, such as digoxin
• Prevent blood clots, such as anticoagulants
• Remove excess fluid from your body, such as diuretics
• Lower your blood pressure, such as beta blockers or angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors
• Lower your cholesterol (statins), since high cholesterol seems to worsen some heart valve problems

Surgery or catheterization
Surgical or catheterization options also depend on your specific heart problem. Although open-heart surgery may be needed, sometimes the cause of the heart murmur is treated using cardiac catheterization techniques.  Examples include:

• Patching a hole in your heart
• Fixing or replacing a valve
• Rebuilding a blood vessel
• Widening a blood vessel that's too narrow by inserting a mesh tube called a stent

Doctors used to recommend that most people with abnormal heart murmurs take antibiotics before visiting the dentist or having surgery. That's usually not the case anymore. Guidelines released in 2007 reserve preventive antibiotic treatment only for a small group of people who are at high risk of serious complications. Most people with heart murmurs won't need antibiotics. If you have questions about whether or not you should take antibiotics, talk to your doctor.

While there's not much you can do to prevent or treat a heart murmur, it is reassuring to know that heart murmurs are not a disease and are often harmless. For children, many murmurs go away on their own as they grow. For adults, murmurs may disappear as the underlying condition causing them improves.

If your heart murmur is cause for concern, the condition causing the murmur is often treatable. Your doctor or cardiologist can help you decide the best course of treatment to correct the problem.