Heart murmur: diagnosis, prevention, and physical activity

«Introduction: the heart murmur

Malignant heart murmurs

MALIGNANT BLOWS, on the other hand, have an anatomical equivalent and are caused by specific pathologies. Some of these directly affect the heart structures (in these cases we speak of organic murmurs), others indirectly such as rheumatic disease, bacterial endocarditis and syphilis.

Usually congenital diseases present a perceptible alteration already at birth or shortly after. The diagnosis is therefore early and accurate in most cases.

The most common congenital pathology, even if it involves a limited number of cases, is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This disease has peculiar genetic characteristics and often has different prognoses from subject to subject.

Pathological murmurs are also classified according to the severity of the disorder and in milder cases it is generally sufficient to improve lifestyle habits and keep symptoms under control. The cardiologist after a careful echocardiographic evaluation will decide in each case which measures to take. In the most serious cases we proceed with the replacement of the damaged valve, today more and more replaced by reparative surgery which, compared to the previous one, has the great advantage of preserving the native valve.

Diagnosis

A good cardiologist, based on the characteristics of the perceived noise, is usually able to easily diagnose the real extent of the problem. In any case there are specific tests such as the traditional echocardiogram and the ecocolordoppler able to confirm or not the clinical diagnosis. These powerful diagnostic tools are able to highlight the direction and speed of anomalous flow through the valve systems

Ultrasound and Doppler ultrasound are used as means of diagnostic confirmation so their prescription should not frighten the patient too much.

Sometimes it may happen that an absolutely physiological murmur (present from birth) can be heard with difficulty and that it is diagnosed late, perhaps in adulthood, during a check-up visit.

Prevention

Although every situation requires specific treatments and interventions, it is good to keep the main cardiovascular risk factors under control a priori. Among these the most important are overweight, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, alterations in blood calcium, smoking and a sedentary lifestyle.

Heart murmur and physical activity

Many people diagnosed with a heart murmur fear that physical activity may somehow aggravate the problem or jeopardize their health. If this is true in the presence of pathological murmurs, in the face of a "benign" or physiological such behavior is absolutely wrong.

It is no coincidence that during physical activity the organic breath tends to be accentuated while the functional one tends to disappear.

In fact, if the heart murmur is not pathological, there is no contraindication to the practice of sporting activities, at whatever level they are practiced.

On the other hand, abandoning sport for fear of a "normal" breath dangerously puts the health of the entire cardiovascular system at risk, given that a sedentary lifestyle is correlated with a greater risk of obesity, hypertension, dyslipedemias and cardiovascular problems in general.

In some cases, it may happen that physical activity causes the appearance of an absolutely physiological murmur due to the increase in the systolic stroke recorded in the subject engaged in endurance disciplines.