What is the difference between a heart murmur and an arrhythmia?

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1. 1

   Pediatric murmur auscultation and tele-consultation: importance of signal quality and classification

   Pediatric Research (Wyk & Grobler)Published Sep 30, 2026Checked Oct 17, 2026

   “Cardiac murmurs are among the most common reasons for referral to pediatric cardiology. It is estimated that approximately two thirds of children will have a murmur at some point during their childhood, of which between 30% and 75% of murmur referrals are eventually classified as innocent. 1”

2. 2

   Determinants of systolic murmurs without significant valvular heart disease in an unselected Norwegian adult population: the Tromsø Study.

   Open heart (Andersen et al.)Published Jun 15, 2026Checked Oct 17, 2026

   “We used multivariable logistic regression with complete-case data from 1643 participants to identify determinants of innocent murmurs.ResultsAmong 1680 participants, 339 (20.2%) had an innocent murmur. In multivariable analysis, mean aortic valve gradient was the strongest determinant (OR 23.79 per 5 mm Hg, 95% CI 15.01 to 38.71), followed by female sex (OR 3.42, 95% CI 2.38 to 4.99), age (OR 1.41 per 10 years, 95% CI 1.22 to 1.64), systolic blood pressure (OR 1.12 per 10 mm Hg, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.20) and haemoglobin (OR 0.86 per 10 g/L, 95% CI 0.75 to 0.98). Murmur probability increased steeply with increasing gradient and exceeded 50% at 6-8 mm Hg, depending on sex. Women had a higher murmur probability than men across the observed gradient range.ConclusionsIn adults without significant VHD, systolic murmurs were strongly associated with mean aortic valve gradient and occurred at lower gradients in women than in men. These findings support interpreting systolic murmurs as a probabilistic and context-dependent clinical finding rather than a binary marker of VHD.”

3. 3

   Innocent heart murmurs.

   PubMed (Martins et al.)Published Jun 1, 2008Checked Oct 17, 2026

   “Innocent heart murmur is a frequent auscultatory finding in children. The diagnosis is essentially clinical, without need for further investigation. However, excluding heart disease can be a difficult task. This review article describes some features of medical history and physical examination that help in this differentiation. The role of diagnostic tests is also examined.”

4. 4

   Should functional cardiac murmurs be diagnosed by auscultation or by doppler echocardiography?

   Clinical Cardiology (Bloch et al.)Published Dec 1, 2001Checked Oct 17, 2026

   “The results for cardiac auscultation and Doppler echocardiography were considered to be concordant, that is, both techniques diagnosed either a functional or organic murmur in 250 of 321 patients (77.9%). The results for cardiac auscultation and Doppler echocardiography showed a major discordance in just six cases (1.9%). All were mitral regurgitations of moderate severity. The prevalence of cardiac murmurs in the general population is very high. As echocardiography currently represents a significant proportion of cardiac medical expenditure, it would be wise to limit the use of this technique to essential indications. This study confirms that both cardiac auscultation and Doppler echocardiography possess important limitations.”

5. 5

   Heart murmurs in the general population: diagnostic value and prevalence from the Tromsø Study.

   Heart (British Cardiac Society) (Davidsen et al.)Published Dec 24, 2025Checked Oct 17, 2026

   “We calculated sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and likelihood ratios for murmur detection.ResultsGPs detected heart murmurs in 487 participants (23%). Significant VHD was identified in 392 participants (19%), but only 139 of them (35.5%) had an audible murmur. Systolic murmurs detected all cases of AS (sensitivity 100%, specificity 78%). Sensitivity was lower for AR (43%) and MR (29%), while specificity of distinct murmurs exceeded 94% across all VHD types. Diastolic murmurs were rare (n=9) but highly specific (>99%). Among participants with murmurs, age ≥70 years (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.4), male sex (OR 3.3, 95% CI 2.0 to 5.3) and previous myocardial infarction (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.0 to 5.2) were independently associated with VHD.ConclusionIn this general adult population, heart auscultation by GPs identified murmurs in nearly one in four individuals and showed high specificity but limited sensitivity for diagnosing VHD. Auscultation remains a valuable initial screening tool-especially for AS-but should be complemented by echocardiography in older or high-risk individuals.”