Questions posted in the
Heart Forum have been answered by doctors from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
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Subject: Re: concerned my wife recently had a physical in which the Dr. said she heard a "murmur". She wants her to have an echocardiogram done, and I was concerned. She had a Dr. tell her in 1991 (she is 30 now) "has anyone ever said you have an irregular heartbeat", but he never offered any further follow up. My point???. . . . is it fairly common to request an echo if a dr. hears a murmur?? She was in the hospital a few weeks before this due to passing out from food poisoning, and the ER listened extensively to her heart and hooked her to an EKG, and did not mention a thing about any heart irregularities. I know you cannot speculate, because I read your awesome forum all the time, but does this sound routine to you, or do you think there are serious concerns. The Dr. was very matter of fact and did not show a real urgency, which leads me to believe that she must be trying to cover all of her bases. If it was something dangerous she would have shown a little more concern??? Any insight would be great. I hope this doesnt seem like I am asking you to guess, I am just trying to see if this is fairly common. _______ Dear Josh, Yes it is very common to order an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) upon hearing a heart murmur on physical exam. Any murmur is of mild concern, enough that you order an echo to find out if there should be any further concern, treatment, or follow-up since as you may already know, some heart murmurs come and go and are completely innocent, but until the echo is done, you can not comment any further than that. Again, I do not think that the doctor is "just covering all the bases",
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