A heart murmur is a swishing or a whistling sound that the doctor hears when he listens to your child's heart with a stethoscope.

The heart beat normally makes two sounds: the first is Lub and the second is Dub, these two sounds follow each other (Lub Dub) and are not separated by any extra sounds.

A heart murmur will be heard as a swishing or a whistling sound in addition to the normal Lub-Dub sound. The moving blood sounds like the running water in your garden hose.

A heart murmur may indicate that there is a heart problem or may be due to normal blood flow. A heart murmur is not a diagnosis or disease, it is a sign to alert our attention to check if there is anything wrong.

Most of the time heart murmurs are normal and do not indicate that there is anything wrong with the heart. However, sometimes they may result from a hole in the heart or a narrowed valve. A hole in the hose allows water to squirt out producing a whistling sound.

Heart murmurs come in different sounds which may help indicate whether the murmur is normal or abnormal.

Click the sound icon to listen to the different heart murmur sounds on this page.

Musical

Harsh

Machine-Like

Listen to the difference between a small hole in the heart and a large hole.

Small Hole

The fact that a heart murmur sounds softer may indicate that the hole is larger.

Large Hole