Friday, October 22, 2010

The 6 grades of heart murmurs

5 comments:

  1. I go through the I-VI systolic murmur grading at least once a day. Still's murmurs are my bread and butter. :) Now it makes perfect sense why when I say it's a II/VI and the med student with me looks at me with "Whuh? Huh?" written on their face.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hahahaha. I would add one, the now you hear now you don't murmur.

    1/2 the time I have one, the other 1/2 it's, apparently, undetectable.

    I can never tell if the docs are hearing things or not hearing things.

    At least my fickle murmur is nothing to get excited about.

    M

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lol, that is so funny and so true! I am a 2nd year med student and still learning to hear murmurs. Half the time I am still trying to figure out if it's a murmur or ambient noise. But I must say I am definitely getting better, last week I picked up a grade 2 murmur and thought it was a Grade 3; my attending said my ears are getting more sensitive :) I am shopping around for a better stethoscope although my attending informed me that "all stethoscopes are the same and I should just train my ears."

    ReplyDelete
  4. You outdid yourself here Fizzy!!!
    Once, I was in a teaching clinic, as a 2nd year med student, the professor had one of those long hose like stethoscopes, with double hearing outlets - one exclusively for the students - there was a murmur, which EVERY "gunner" not only heard, but also deciphered whether it was crescendo decrescendo or pansystolic!!! Most other students just nodded, I was the only one who couldn't hear anything.....
    In the end, professor said - "who is going to be the best doc" and pointed at me....
    She had NEVER turned the student hearing piece on!!!!!
    There was nothing to hear!!!!!
    I never felt so good about NOT hearing a murmur again though ;-)

    ReplyDelete