The Most Important Cardiac Murmurs and Arrhythmias

Blood flow through the heart is generally laminar, but a number of circumstances may alter the laminar blood flow, resulting in turbulent flow. Turbulent flow causes vibrations of cardiac structures resulting in a murmur that can be heard by auscultation. Three different types of murmurs exist where the physiological and functional murmurs are benign and not associated with cardiac changes. This presentation will focus on the most common pathological murmurs which develop due to acquired or congenital cardiac malformations, e.g. valvular regurgitations or ventricular septal defects (VSD) that result in high velocity blood flows from low pressure to high pressure areas, inducing cardiac murmurs. With some practice, auscultation is almost sufficient to identify the source-of-the-murmur. However, the exact diagnosis and quantification of the severity requires echocardiographic examination. In most equine patients with valvular disease, specific therapy is not indicated and management is aimed at periodic monitoring of cardiac function, client information as well as supportive therapy if congestive heart failure is present. […]