Search

Our aim was to investigate the ability of an artificial intelligence (AI)-based algorithm to differentiate innocent murmurs from pathologic ones. An AI-based algorithm was developed using heart sound recordings collected from 1413 patients at the five university hospitals in Finland. The corresponding heart condition was verified using echocardiography. In the second phase of the study, patients referred to Helsinki New Children's Hospital due to a heart murmur were prospectively assessed with the algorithm, and then the results were compared with echocardiography findings. Ninety-eight children were included in this prospective study. The algorithm classified 72 (73%) of the heart sounds as normal and 26 (27%) as abnormal. Echocardiography was normal in 63 (64%) children and abnormal in 35 (36%). The algorithm recognized abnormal heart sounds in 24 of 35 children with abnormal echocardiography and normal heart sounds with normal echocardiography in 61 of 63 children. When the murmur was audible, the sensitivity and specificity of the algorithm were 83% (24/29) (confidence interval (CI) 64–94%) and 97% (59/61) (CI 89–100%), respectively. Conclusion: The algorithm was able to distinguish murmurs associated with structural cardiac anomalies from innocent murmurs with good sensitivity and specificity. The algorithm was unable to identify heart defects that did not cause a murmur. Further research is needed on the use of the algorithm in screening for heart murmurs in primary health care. What is Known: • Innocent murmurs are common in children, while the incidence of moderate or severe congenital heart defects is low. Auscultation plays a significant role in assessing the need for further examinations of the murmur. The ability to differentiate innocent murmurs from those related to congenital heart defects requires clinical experience on the part of general practitioners. No AI-based auscultation algorithms have been systematically implemented in primary health care. What is New: • We developed an AI-based algorithm using a large dataset of sound samples validated by echocardiography. The algorithm performed well in recognizing pathological and innocent murmurs in children from different age groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thoracic deformity affects circulatory dynamics, and postural changes may affect hemodynamics. We report on the case of a 10-year-old girl with straight back syndrome (SBS) and funnel chest in which a right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) obstruction was demonstrated by dynamic echocardiography. The patient occasionally experienced chest discomfort in the standing and sitting positions. Chest radiography and computed tomography showed SBS and funnel chest as well as limited anteroposterior chest space. Although she had a grade 3 systolic ejection murmur due to RVOT obstruction, it disappeared in the supine position. The cardiothoracic ratio was 56 % in the supine position but increased to 67 % in the upright position. Echocardiography showed that the RVOT was maintained in the supine (1.0 m/s) but narrowed in the sitting (1.7 m/s) position. This is the first pediatric case showing RVOT obstruction during the upright position that has been shown by dynamic echocardiography. Dynamic echocardiography in both positions may be useful for evaluating RVOT stenosis. Patients with straight back syndrome and funnel chest have limited anteroposterior chest space, which may cause posture-dependent right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) obstruction. Dynamic echocardiography in the supine and sitting position is useful to detect posture-dependent RVOT obstruction, which can be also observed in the pediatric population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dog was presented for lameness, fever, and extreme lethargy. On physical exam, a new heart murmur, arrhythmia, and joint effusion were detected. These findings were not detected two months prior. A diagnostic work-up confirmed septic suppurative inflammation in multiple joints. Echocardiogram revealed aortic valvular endocarditis along with a communication, as a consequence of a fistula, that extended from just below the aortic sinotubular junction to the left atrial lumen. Due to a poor prognosis, humane euthanasia was elected. Necropsy and histopathology confirmed infective endocarditis of the aortic valve and an aorto-left atrial fistulous tract extending from the left coronary sinus of the aortic valve to the lumen of left atrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE To develop breed-specific echocardiographic values for normal Borzoi and to report the prevalence of structural cardiac abnormalities. ANIMALS 146 clinically healthy, adult Borzoi dogs. METHODS Cardiac auscultation and standard echocardiograms were performed. Longitudinal follow-up was described in a subset of dogs (n = 25). RESULTS Most Borzoi were structurally normal (119/146, 81.5%), with breed-specific echocardiographic values generated independently for each sex, as females weighed significantly less than males (30.4 ± 3.8 kg vs 38.3 ± 4.1 kg, respectively; P < .001), and a significant impact of sex was found on most measurements. Physiologic heart murmurs were identified in 64/119 (53.8%) normal dogs. Thirty-six (30.2%) structurally normal dogs had trace or mild mitral regurgitation, and 43 (36.1%) had trace or mild tricuspid regurgitation. Structural cardiac disease was identified in 21 dogs (14.4%), including 9 dogs (6.2%) with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), 9 dogs (6.2%) with stage B1 myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD), and 3 (2.1%) dogs with congenital abnormalities. Seven dogs (4.8%) had equivocal abnormalities. During follow-up, new dogs were diagnosed with occult DCM (n = 3), equivocal DCM (1), and stage B1 MMVD (2). Two dogs originally diagnosed with DCM (1 occult and 1 equivocal) normalized after diet change. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Borzoi dogs commonly have physiologic heart murmurs and mild atrioventricular valve regurgitation. Both DCM and MMVD were identified at similar frequencies in healthy Borzoi, although dogs with MMVD all had normal heart sizes. Echocardiographic screening for DCM in Borzoi should be considered, with breed-specific echocardiographic values now available for improved diagnostic confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gyermekgyógyászat is the property of Semmelweis Kiado and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The healthcare industry has made significant progress in the diagnosis of heart conditions due to the use of intelligent detection systems such as electrocardiograms, cardiac ultrasounds, and abnormal sound diagnostics that use artificial intelligence (AI) technology, such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Over the past few decades, methods for automated segmentation and classification of heart sounds have been widely studied. In many cases, both experimental and clinical data require electrocardiography (ECG)-labeled phonocardiograms (PCGs) or several feature extraction techniques from the mel-scale frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) spectrum of heart sounds to achieve better identification results with AI methods. Without good feature extraction techniques, the CNN may face challenges in classifying the MFCC spectrum of heart sounds. To overcome these limitations, we propose a capsule neural network (CapsNet), which can utilize iterative dynamic routing methods to obtain good combinations for layers in the translational equivariance of MFCC spectrum features, thereby improving the prediction accuracy of heart murmur classification. The 2016 PhysioNet heart sound database was used for training and validating the prediction performance of CapsNet and other CNNs. Then, we collected our own dataset of clinical auscultation scenarios for fine-tuning hyperparameters and testing results. CapsNet demonstrated its feasibility by achieving validation accuracies of 90.29% and 91.67% on the test dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractObjective To investigate interrater and intrarater agreement between physicians and medical students on heart sound classification from audio recordings, and factors predicting agreement with a reference classification.Design Intra- and interrater agreement study.Subjects Seventeen GPs and eight cardiologists from Norway and the Netherlands, eight medical students from Norway.Main outcome measures Proportion of agreement and kappa coefficients for intrarater agreement and agreement with a reference classification.Results The proportion of intrarater agreement on the presence of any murmur was 83% on average, with a median kappa of 0.64 (range k = 0.09–0.86) for all raters, and 0.65, 0.69, and 0.61 for GPs, cardiologist, and medical students, respectively.The proportion of agreement with the reference on any murmur was 81% on average, with a median kappa of 0.67 (range 0.29–0.90) for all raters, and 0.65, 0.69, and 0.51 for GPs, cardiologists, and medical students, respectively.Distinct murmur, more than five years of clinical practice, and cardiology specialty were most strongly associated with the agreement, with ORs of 2.41 (95% CI 1.63–3.58), 2.19 (1.58–3.04), and 2.53 (1.46–4.41), respectively.Conclusion We observed fair but variable agreement with a reference on heart murmurs, and physician experience and specialty, as well as murmur intensity, were the factors most strongly associated with agreement.Key points:Heart auscultation is the main physical examination of the heart, but we lack knowledge of inter- and intrarater agreement on heart sounds.• Physicians identified heart murmurs from heart sound recordings fairly reliably compared with a reference classification, and with fair intrarater agreement.• Both intrarater agreement and agreement with the reference showed considerable variation between doctors• Murmur intensity, more than five years in clinical practice, and cardiology specialty were most strongly linked to agreement with the reference.

Abstract Background With the spread of COVID-19, telemedicine has played an important role, but tele-auscultation is still unavailable in most countries. This study introduces and tests a tele-auscultation system (Stemoscope) and compares the concordance of the Stemoscope with the traditional stethoscope in the evaluation of heart murmurs. Methods A total of 57 patients with murmurs were recruited, and echocardiographs were performed. Three cardiologists were asked to correctly categorize heart sounds (both systolic murmur and diastolic murmur) as normal vs. abnormal with both the Stemoscope and a traditional acoustic stethoscope under different conditions. Firstly, we compared the in-person auscultation agreement between Stemoscope and the conventional acoustic stethoscope. Secondly, we compared tele-auscultation (recorded heart sounds) agreement between Stemoscope and acoustic results. Thirdly, we compared both the Stemoscope tele-auscultation results and traditional acoustic stethoscope in-person auscultation results with echocardiography. Finally, ten other cardiologists were asked to complete a qualitative questionnaire to assess their experience using the Stemoscope. Results For murmurs detection, the in-person auscultation agreement between Stemoscope and the acoustic stethoscope was 91% (p = 0.67). The agreement between Stemoscope tele-auscultation and the acoustic stethoscope in-person auscultation was 90% (p = 0.32). When using the echocardiographic findings as the reference, the agreement between Stemoscope (tele-auscultation) and the acoustic stethoscope (in-person auscultation) was 89% vs. 86% (p = 1.00). The system evaluated by ten cardiologists is considered easy to use, and most of them would consider using it in a telemedical setting. Conclusion In-person auscultation and tele-auscultation by the Stemoscope are in good agreement with manual acoustic auscultation. The Stemoscope is a helpful heart murmur screening tool at a distance and can be used in telemedicine.

The technological progress in computer science (particularly, in machine learning) has contributed to the improvement of medical services, both in detecting and treating diseases. The large volumes of data, that are overwhelming for human experts (doctors, nurses), can easily be managed by automated systems, as long as we have the computational resources. Obviously, human experts are still essential in the process - we think of the use of computer science in medicine as a collaboration between medical staff and artificial intelligence. The usual types of data that can be processed by automated systems are text, sound, and image types. In this paper, we approach the diagnosis subject and focus on data consisting of sound. We created a heart murmur detection system - it analyzes recordings and tells the user whether the sound samples indicate a heart murmur or not, based on a trained machine learning model. One of the main advantages of our system is the fact that we ran a large number of experiments, with different configurations of denoising techniques and features taken into consideration. We were able to draw some interesting conclusions, for example, we found out which features are the most important for the classification and which features are not worth computing. Also, our work denotes a thorough understanding of sound processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: A 3‐year‐old Selle Français entire male presented to the Clinique Equine, Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort, for standing laparoscopic closure of the inguinal rings, to prevent recurrence of a strangulated inguinal hernia. An incidental, iatrogenic pneumothorax was induced during the procedure. Just after the pneumothorax occurred, a heart murmur, not present during the preoperative physical examination, could be auscultated. Relevant echocardiographic examination could not be achieved, due to the air in the thorax. Upon complete resolution of the pneumothorax 2 days later, however, the heart murmur resolved, and no abnormal changes were diagnosed on echocardiographic evaluation. This paper reports the diagnosis and clinical management of an iatrogenic pneumothorax and its associated transient heart murmur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate interrater and intrarater agreement between physicians and medical students on heart sound classification from audio recordings, and factors predicting agreement with a reference classification. Intra- and interrater agreement study. Seventeen GPs and eight cardiologists from Norway and the Netherlands, eight medical students from Norway. Proportion of agreement and kappa coefficients for intrarater agreement and agreement with a reference classification. The proportion of intrarater agreement on the presence of any murmur was 83% on average, with a median kappa of 0.64 (range k = 0.09–0.86) for all raters, and 0.65, 0.69, and 0.61 for GPs, cardiologist, and medical students, respectively. The proportion of agreement with the reference on any murmur was 81% on average, with a median kappa of 0.67 (range 0.29–0.90) for all raters, and 0.65, 0.69, and 0.51 for GPs, cardiologists, and medical students, respectively. Distinct murmur, more than five years of clinical practice, and cardiology specialty were most strongly associated with the agreement, with ORs of 2.41 (95% CI 1.63–3.58), 2.19 (1.58–3.04), and 2.53 (1.46–4.41), respectively. We observed fair but variable agreement with a reference on heart murmurs, and physician experience and specialty, as well as murmur intensity, were the factors most strongly associated with agreement. Heart auscultation is the main physical examination of the heart, but we lack knowledge of inter- and intrarater agreement on heart sounds. • Physicians identified heart murmurs from heart sound recordings fairly reliably compared with a reference classification, and with fair intrarater agreement. • Both intrarater agreement and agreement with the reference showed considerable variation between doctors • Murmur intensity, more than five years in clinical practice, and cardiology specialty were most strongly linked to agreement with the reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The healthcare industry has made significant progress in the diagnosis of heart conditions due to the use of intelligent detection systems such as electrocardiograms, cardiac ultrasounds, and abnormal sound diagnostics that use artificial intelligence (AI) technology, such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Over the past few decades, methods for automated segmentation and classification of heart sounds have been widely studied. In many cases, both experimental and clinical data require electrocardiography (ECG)-labeled phonocardiograms (PCGs) or several feature extraction techniques from the mel-scale frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) spectrum of heart sounds to achieve better identification results with AI methods. Without good feature extraction techniques, the CNN may face challenges in classifying the MFCC spectrum of heart sounds. To overcome these limitations, we propose a capsule neural network (CapsNet), which can utilize iterative dynamic routing methods to obtain good combinations for layers in the translational equivariance of MFCC spectrum features, thereby improving the prediction accuracy of heart murmur classification. The 2016 PhysioNet heart sound database was used for training and validating the prediction performance of CapsNet and other CNNs. Then, we collected our own dataset of clinical auscultation scenarios for fine-tuning hyperparameters and testing results. CapsNet demonstrated its feasibility by achieving validation accuracies of 90.29% and 91.67% on the test dataset.

• Characterization of heart murmurs based on their clinical acoustic qualities. • Modularized computer-aided approach for closer resemblance of cardiac auscultation. • Multi-domain based feature engineering for better discriminative signal characterization. Heart murmur characterization is a crucial part of cardiac auscultation for determining the potential etiology and severity of heart diseases. One such helpful murmur characterization is the sonic qualities, which reflect both structural and hemodynamical states of the heart. Therefore, the objective is to develop a machine learning based solution for classifying murmur qualities. Four medically defined murmur qualities, namely the musical quality, blowing-like quality, coarse quality, and soft quality were examined. Feature was extracted from heart murmurs signals in their time domain, frequency domain, time-frequency domain, and phase space domain. Sequential forward floating selection (SFFS) was implemented along with three classifiers, including k-nearest neighbor (KNN), Naïve-Bayes (NB), and linear support vector machine (SVM). It was found that multi-domain features are suited for better classification results and linear SVM was able to achieve a better balance between performance and the size of feature subsets among tested classifiers. Using the derived features, classification accuracies of 86%, 91%, 90%, and 84% were achieved for musical quality, blowing-like quality, coarse quality, and soft quality classifications respectively. The study demonstrated that it is possible to effectively characterize heart murmur through its diagnostic characteristics instead of drawing direct conclusions, which is helpful for retaining versatility and generality found in the conventional cardiac auscultation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Heart murmurs are a common finding in cats and, in many cases, the presence of an audible murmur on cardiac auscultation does not necessarily imply the presence of an underlying heart disease. Several studies have been published in the past to address the prevalence and clinical significance of heart murmurs in cats, but very few have looked into the exact origin of the blood flow turbulence responsible for this finding. We retrospectively reviewed clinical records and echocardiographic examinations of 856 cats with heart murmur and found that the majority of murmurs are caused by systolic anterior motion of the mitral valve (SAM) (39.2%) and dynamic right ventricular outflow tract obstruction (DRVOTO) (32%). These causes of murmur do not appear associated with a structural cardiac abnormality in 56.1% (SAM) and 85.0% (DRVOTO) of murmurs. This study also demonstrated that some heart murmur characteristics (timing, intensity and location) can occasionally discriminate between normal cats and cats with underlying heart disease, with the exception of loud and palpable murmurs, which are inevitably associated with significant cardiac abnormalities. However, since the majority of heart murmurs in cats appear to be systolic and mild–moderate in loudness, echocardiography should always be considered following identification of a heart murmur on physical examination in cats. Background: Cardiac auscultation is one of the most important clinical tools to identify patients with a potential heart disease. Although several publications have reported the prevalence of murmurs in cats, little information is available in relation to the exact origin of the blood flow turbulences responsible for these murmurs. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and clinical significance of murmurs detected during physical examination in cats. Methods: Retrospective evaluation of clinical records and echocardiographic examinations performed in cats for investigation of heart murmurs; Results: Records of 856 cats with full clinical information were available for review. The cause of murmur was identified in 93.1% of cases (72.3% with single blood flow turbulence, 26.4% with two, and 1.3% with three identifiable sources of murmur). Systolic anterior motion of the mitral valve (SAM) was the primary cause of murmur in this population (39.2%), followed by dynamic right ventricular outflow tract obstruction (DRVOTO) (32%) and flow murmurs (6.9%). Most cats with a murmur (56.7%) did not present any structural cardiac abnormality. Conclusions: This study indicates that some heart murmur characteristics (timing, loudness and point of maximal intensity) can potentially predict the presence of an underlying cardiac disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: With the spread of COVID-19, telemedicine has played an important role, but tele-auscultation is still unavailable in most countries. This study introduces and tests a tele-auscultation system (Stemoscope) and compares the concordance of the Stemoscope with the traditional stethoscope in the evaluation of heart murmurs.Methods: A total of 57 patients with murmurs were recruited, and echocardiographs were performed. Three cardiologists were asked to correctly categorize heart sounds (both systolic murmur and diastolic murmur) as normal vs. abnormal with both the Stemoscope and a traditional acoustic stethoscope under different conditions. Firstly, we compared the in-person auscultation agreement between Stemoscope and the conventional acoustic stethoscope. Secondly, we compared tele-auscultation (recorded heart sounds) agreement between Stemoscope and acoustic results. Thirdly, we compared both the Stemoscope tele-auscultation results and traditional acoustic stethoscope in-person auscultation results with echocardiography. Finally, ten other cardiologists were asked to complete a qualitative questionnaire to assess their experience using the Stemoscope.Results: For murmurs detection, the in-person auscultation agreement between Stemoscope and the acoustic stethoscope was 91% (p = 0.67). The agreement between Stemoscope tele-auscultation and the acoustic stethoscope in-person auscultation was 90% (p = 0.32). When using the echocardiographic findings as the reference, the agreement between Stemoscope (tele-auscultation) and the acoustic stethoscope (in-person auscultation) was 89% vs. 86% (p = 1.00). The system evaluated by ten cardiologists is considered easy to use, and most of them would consider using it in a telemedical setting.Conclusion: In-person auscultation and tele-auscultation by the Stemoscope are in good agreement with manual acoustic auscultation. The Stemoscope is a helpful heart murmur screening tool at a distance and can be used in telemedicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies in children with innocent murmurs have shown that parental concern is common. We assessed the anxiety levels among parents of asymptomatic neonates or infants up-to 6 weeks referred for cardiologic consultation because of a heart murmur. A six-item short-form of the state scale of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was completed by the parents before and after consultation. The average STAI score decreased from 14.42 ± 4.54 on arrival to 9.69 ± 4.26 after the consultation (p < 0.001). Overall, the parents felt more calm, less tense, less upset, more relaxed, more content and less worried after the consultation (p < 0.001). Multivariable linear regression analysis showed that the STAI score prior to consultation was related to infants age (coefficient β = – 0.172; P = 0.046) and STAI score post consultation was related to the final diagnosis (β = 0.312; P < 0.001). In conclusion, parents of asymptomatic neonates and young infants with a murmur exhibit moderate levels of anxiety which can be ameliorated after consultation. Parental education in the field is of paramount importance and the role of both paediatric cardiologists as well as primary care physicians is crucial and decisive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To evaluate the prevalence of subclinical cardiomyopathy and cardiac mortality in a research colony of non-purebred cats, established as a model of the wider cat population in New Zealand., Methods: All apparently healthy, compliant, non-pregnant, non-neonatal cats in the colony at the Centre for Feline Nutrition (Massey University, Palmerston North, NZ) underwent physical examination and echocardiography using a 4.4-6.2-MHz probe by a board-certified veterinary cardiologist. Cardiac phenotype was classified following current guidelines. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) phenotype was defined as an end-diastolic left ventricular wall thickness ≥ 6 mm. Colony mortality data from February 2012 to February 2022 was reviewed to determine cardiac mortality., Results: Cats (n = 132; 65 females and 67 males) included in the study had a median age of 4.1 (IQR 3.0-8.0) years. Thirty-two (24%) cats had a heart murmur, and three (2%) cats had an arrhythmia. Echocardiography revealed heart disease in 24 (18.2%) cats, including 23 with an HCM phenotype and one with a restrictive cardiomyopathy phenotype. Of the cats with the HCM phenotype, 3/23 had systemic hypertension or hyperthyroidism or both, and these cats were excluded from the final diagnosis of HCM (20/132; 15.2 (95% CI = 9.5-22.4)%).Between 2012 and 2022, 168 colony cats died, with 132 undergoing post-mortem examination. Heart disease was considered the cause of death in 7/132 (5.3%; 95% CI = 2.2-10.6%) cats; five had HCM, one a congenital heart defect, and one myocarditis. The overall prevalence of death related to HCM in the colony during this period was 3.8% (95% CI = 1.2-8.6%). Three cats with HCM and the cat with a congenital heart defect died unexpectedly without prior clinical signs, while congestive heart failure was observed prior to death in two cats with HCM and the cat with myocarditis. Additionally, 30/132 (22.7%) cats had cardiac abnormalities but died for non-cardiac reasons., Conclusions: Subclinical cardiomyopathy, specifically HCM, was common in cats in the colony. Given that the colony originated as a convenience selection of non-purebred cats in New Zealand, the true prevalence of HCM in the wider New Zealand population is likely to fall within the 95% CI (9.5-22%). The proportion of deaths of colony cats due to HCM was lower (3.8%) supporting the conclusion that subclinical cardiomyopathy may not progress to clinical disease causing death., Clinical Relevance: Veterinarians should be aware of the high prevalence of subclinical HCM when treating cats., Abbreviations: CAM: Systolic anterior motion of the chordae tendineae; CFN: Centre for Feline Nutrition; HCM: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; LA/Ao: Left atrial to aortic ratio; LV FS: Left ventricular fractional shortening; LVIDd: Left ventricular internal diameters in end-diastole; LVIDs: Left ventricular internal diameter in end-systole; LVWT: Max Maximum left ventricular wall thickness; SAM: Systolic anterior motion of the mitral valve; 2D: Two-dimensional.

BackgroundCardiac auscultation is a traditional method that is most frequently used for identifying congenital heart disease (CHD). Failure to diagnose CHD may occur in patients with faint murmurs or obesity. We aimed to develop an intelligent diagnostic method of detecting heart murmurs in patients with ventricular septal defects (VSDs) and atrial septal defects (ASDs).Materials and methodsDigital recordings of heart sounds and phonocardiograms of 184 participants were obtained. All participants underwent echocardiography by pediatric cardiologists to determine the type of CHD. The phonocardiogram data were classified as normal, ASD, or VSD. Then, the phonocardiogram signal was used to extract features to construct diagnostic models for disease classification using an advanced optical coherence tomography network (AOCT-NET). Cardiologists were asked to distinguish normal heart sounds from ASD/VSD murmurs after listening to the electronic sound recordings. Comparisons of the cardiologists’ assessment and AOCT-NET performance were performed.ResultsEchocardiography results revealed 88 healthy participants, 50 with ASDs, and 46 with VSDs. The AOCT-NET had no advantage in detecting VSD compared with cardiologist assessment. However, AOCT-NET performance was better than that of cardiologists in detecting ASD (sensitivity, 76.4 vs. 27.8%, respectively; specificity, 90 vs. 98.5%, respectively).ConclusionThe proposed method has the potential to improve the ASD detection rate and could be an important screening tool for patients without symptoms.

Aim Children with congenital heart diseases are at the greater risk of respiratory tract infection such as pneumonia. Recurrent pneumonia is one of the most major challenge for paediatric physicians. The aim of this study is to investigate risk factors of congenital heart diseases to recurrent pneumonia children. Methods This was a retrospective study of under five-year-old children hospitalized in Hasan Sadikin General Hospital Bandung Indonesia from 2015 to 2018. Congenital heart diseases and pneumonia, as well as recurrent pneumonia, were identified. Congenital heart diseases diagnosis with and without pneumonia were reviewed. Results Of 6997 hospitalized children, in 1258 (18.0%) congenital heart diseases were found, of which 232 (18.4%) had recurrent pneumonia. Most of those had left to right (L to R) shunt, 213 (91.8%). Congenital heart diseases in children aged under 1 year, 144 (62%) were more preponderant than in those aged 1–5 years. More than a half, 119 (51.3%) were males. Left to right shunt was documented as having recurrent pneumonia, of which patent ductus arteriosus and ventricular septal defect were the most common type in congenital heart diseases. Ventricular septal defect had a possibility for recurrent pneumonia by 1.551 times, and malnutrition 2.591 times. Conclusion Ventricular septal defect and malnutrition were identified as risk factors for recurrent pneumonia. Those patients require multidisciplinary approach to prevent respiratory complications.

Background: Infants born with congenital heart disease (CHD) typically present different clinical manifestations which make this condition hard to diagnose. Considering serious complications arising from misdiagnosis, inventing new methods and/or improving traditional diagnostic approaches has always been a research objective. Methods: In this cross-sectional analysis, which took place in Children's Medical Center in Tehran, 150 infants admitted to an intensive care unit were evaluated based on echocardiographic findings from 2015 to 2017. Echocardiography was done due to abnormalities in physical examination and/or oxygen saturation level. Results: The sensitivity of clinical study value was 82% and the negative predictive value was 20%. The sensitivity of arterial oxygen saturation immediately after admission to the neonatal intensive care was 92%, the specificity was 34%, positive predictive value was 56% and negative predictive value was 25%. Conclusion: In terms of high sensitivity, clinical symptom including tachypnea, cyanosis, arrhythmias, respiratory distress, cardiac murmur, or arterial oxygen saturation level in newborns may be useful for screening CHD. Among the clinical manifestations, cyanosis and respiratory distress are more valuable.

Abstract Background Heart murmurs are detected commonly in apparently healthy cats during routine physical examination, and Doppler echocardiography ultimately is required to identify the source of flow turbulence causing the murmur. However, in some cases, the origin of the murmur cannot be identified on echocardiographic examination, even by experienced clinicians. The application of gentle pressure with the ultrasound transducer against the chest wall of a cat can induce temporary narrowing of the mid‐right ventricular (RV) lumen, causing blood flow turbulence even in the absence of cardiac abnormalities. Objectives/Hypotheses To evaluate the effect of pressure of the ultrasound transducer against the chest wall of cats during echocardiography (provocative testing) on RV blood flow. The main hypothesis is that provocative testing can increase RV outflow velocity and cause flow turbulence. The second hypothesis is that the effect of this maneuver is independent of changes in heart rate during testing. Animals Sixty‐one client‐owned, apparently healthy cats with heart murmurs on physical examination. Methods Retrospective review of echocardiographic examinations of 723 cats presented for investigation of a heart murmur. Results Outflow systolic velocity increased from 1.05 ± 0.26 to 1.94 ± 0.51 m/s during provocative testing (P

Background: Previous studies in children with innocent murmurs have shown that parental concern is common. Our aim was to assess the level of anxiety among parents of children referred for cardiology evaluation because of an innocent heart murmur and investigate their perceptions about innocent murmurs. Methods: A questionnaire was completed by parents before and after consultation. The questionnaire included a six‐item short form of the state scale of the Spielberger State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory. After the echocardiogram, a detailed consultation was offered including a thorough explanation that the results were normal, as well as a written report. Results: A total of 417 questionnaires were completed by parents of 340 children. Almost half of the parents believed that a heart murmur signifies heart disease or may interfere with child's ability to exercise; 21% of them stated that the siblings should also be investigated irrespective of the presence of a murmur. The mean Spielberger State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaire score before pediatric cardiology consultation was 17.1 ± 4.3 and increased to 22.6 ± 2.8 after the consultation (Wilcoxon P < 0.001). Conclusions: Parents of infants and children with innocent murmurs exhibit moderate levels of anxiety and this condition can be ameliorated significantly after pediatric cardiology consultation. Focused parental education is of paramount importance and the role of pediatric cardiologists is crucial and decisive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cardiac auscultation is one of the most important clinical tools to identify patients with a potential heart disease. Although several publications have reported the prevalence of murmurs in cats, little information is available in relation to the exact origin of the blood flow turbulences responsible for these murmurs. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and clinical significance of murmurs detected during physical examination in cats. Methods: Retrospective evaluation of clinical records and echocardiographic examinations performed in cats for investigation of heart murmurs; Results: Records of 856 cats with full clinical information were available for review. The cause of murmur was identified in 93.1% of cases (72.3% with single blood flow turbulence, 26.4% with two, and 1.3% with three identifiable sources of murmur). Systolic anterior motion of the mitral valve (SAM) was the primary cause of murmur in this population (39.2%), followed by dynamic right ventricular outflow tract obstruction (DRVOTO) (32%) and flow murmurs (6.9%). Most cats with a murmur (56.7%) did not present any structural cardiac abnormality. Conclusions: This study indicates that some heart murmur characteristics (timing, loudness and point of maximal intensity) can potentially predict the presence of an underlying cardiac disease.

Background: Newborn screening for congenital heart disease (CHD) forms part of the newborn physical examination (NPE) in the UK. However, research has shown that up to 50% of cases of CHD can be missed by this examination. The purpose of this literature review is to investigate the significance of hearing an asymptomatic heart murmur at the NPE in relation to the presence of CHD. Methodology: A critical literature review was conducted to answer the research question. The findings were discussed using a narrative synthesis approach. Findings: There was considerable heterogeneity of results. The prevalence of murmur in newborns ranged between 0.6%–10.7%. Between 13%–67% of those newborns had some form of CHD, although many had clinically insignificant lesions. Between 2%–9% of newborns with murmurs had a form of critical CHD (CCHD). The ability to discern whether a heart murmur relates to pathology or not improves with experience. No single optimal timing for the NPE was identified. Pulse oximetry was shown to increase sensitivity of screening for CCHD. Conclusion: There is a significant increase in the prevalence of CHD when a newborn has a heart murmur, hence referral for diagnostic echocardiography is required when a heart murmur is identified. Pulse oximetry is an important adjunct to newborn screening for CCHD. Some newborns affected by CCHD will not present with murmur at the NPE. Therefore, those caring for newborns during the early days must know the signs and symptoms of CHD so that appropriate medical assistance can be sought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eurasian lynx (subspecies Lynx lynx carpathicus) was reintroduced to Switzerland in the 1970's. Health monitoring of the reintroduced population started in the late 1980's. Since then, six lynx have been found affected by a myocardial disease. The earliest case was an animal that died after a field anesthesia. Two lynx were found dead, two were euthanized/culled because of disease signs, and one was hit by car. Two had a heart murmur at clinical examination. At necropsy, the first animal showed only lung edema but the other five had cardiomegaly associated with myocardial fibrosis. Three had multisystemic effusions. Histological examination of all six lynx showed mild to severe, multifocal, myocardial interstitial and perivascular fibrosis along with multifocal myocyte degeneration and loss, and replacement fibrosis. Moderate to severe multifocal arteriosclerosis with associated luminal stenosis of the small and medium-sized intramural coronary arteries and the presence of Anitschkow cells was also observed. The heart lesions may have led to sudden death in the first case and to a chronic right-sided heart failure in the remaining. None of the lynx showed lesions or signs suggestive of an acute or subacute infection. Given the common geographic origin of these animals and the severe loss of heterozygocity in this population, a genetic origin of the disease is hypothesized.

Aim Children with congenital heart diseases are at the greater risk of respiratory tract infection such as pneumonia. Recurrent pneumonia is one of the most major challenge for paediatric physicians. The aim of this study is to investigate risk factors of congenital heart diseases to recurrent pneumonia children. Methods This was a retrospective study of under five-year-old children hospitalized in Hasan Sadikin General Hospital Bandung Indonesia from 2015 to 2018. Congenital heart diseases and pneumonia, as well as recurrent pneumonia, were identified. Congenital heart diseases diagnosis with and without pneumonia were reviewed. Results Of 6997 hospitalized children, in 1258 (18.0%) congenital heart diseases were found, of which 232 (18.4%) had recurrent pneumonia. Most of those had left to right (L to R) shunt, 213 (91.8%). Congenital heart diseases in children aged under 1 year, 144 (62%) were more preponderant than in those aged 1-5 years. More than a half, 119 (51.3%) were males. Left to right shunt was documented as having recurrent pneumonia, of which patent ductus arteriosus and ventricular septal defect were the most common type in congenital heart diseases. Ventricular septal defect had a possibility for recurrent pneumonia by 1.551 times, and malnutrition 2.591 times. Conclusion Ventricular septal defect and malnutrition were identified as risk factors for recurrent pneumonia. Those patients require multidisciplinary approach to prevent respiratory complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heart murmurs are an extremely common finding in the paediatric population and the leading cause for referral to paediatric cardiology services. Studies suggest that up to 90% of children will be diagnosed with a heart murmur at some point in their life. Although the great majority of these will be innocent in nature, the degree of parental anxiety following the clinical detection of a murmur, combined with social media influences raises the expectations for specialist input and imaging. Echocardiograms in expert hands can provide an immediate and definite answer as to whether the nature of the murmur is indeed benign or secondary to underlying heart disease. This article aims to support General Paediatricians in their evaluation of children with heart murmurs in order to provide a confident assessment and effective counselling to minimize anxiety pending further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We performed a literature search to identify the details of patients with right ventricular outflow tract obstruction caused by an aneurysm of the ventricular membranous septum in a perimembranous ventricular septal defect. Thirty-one cases with a median age of 29 years (range, 1-69 years) were studied. A right ventricle-pulmonary artery systolic pressure gradient ranged from 35 to 107 mm Hg (mean 69 mm Hg). An interventricular shunt was absent in eight patients: two children and six adults. It is necessary to monitor the size of an aneurysm of the ventricular membranous septum, whether or not an interventricular shunt is present., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Cardiac auscultation is an important, albeit underutilized tool in aquatic animal medicine due to the many challenges associated with in-water examinations. The aims of this prospective study were to (1) establish an efficient and repeatable in-water cardiac auscultation technique in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), (2) describe the presence and characterization of heart murmurs detected in free-ranging and managed dolphins, and (3) characterize heart murmur etiology through echocardiography in free-ranging dolphins. For technique development, 65 dolphins cared for by the Navy Marine Mammal Program (Navy) were auscultated. The techniques were then applied to two free-ranging dolphin populations during capture-release health assessments: Sarasota Bay, Florida (SB), a reference population, and Barataria Bay, LA (BB), a well-studied population of dolphins impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Systolic heart murmurs were detected at a frequent and similar prevalence in all dolphin populations examined (Navy 92%, SB 89%, and BB 88%), and characterized as fixed or dynamic. In all three populations, sternal cranial and left cranial were the most common locations for murmur point of maximal intensity (PMI). An in-water transthoracic echocardiogram technique was refined on a subset of Navy dolphins, and full echocardiographic exams were performed on 17 SB dolphins and 29 BB dolphins, of which, 40 had murmurs. Spectral Doppler was used to measure flow velocities across the outflow tracts, and almost all dolphins with audible murmurs had peak outflow velocities ≥1.6 m/s (95%, 38/40); three dolphins also had medium mitral regurgitation which could be the source of their murmurs. The presence of audible murmurs in most of the free-ranging dolphins (88%) was attributed to high velocity blood flow as seen on echocardiography, similar to a phenomenon described in other athletic species. These innocent murmurs were generally characterized as Grade I-III systolic murmurs with PMI in the left or sternal cranial region. This study is the first to describe an efficient technique for in-water dolphin cardiac auscultation, and to present evidence that heart murmurs are common in bottlenose dolphins.

Pulmonary valve stenosis (PS) in dogs is usually suspected due to the presence of a heart murmur and clinical signs. Echocardiography is needed to confirm the diagnosis and define the severity of PS. This retrospective study evaluated the utility of clinical and electrocardiographic (ECG) findings in the prediction of PS severity. Data regarding heart murmur and ECG analysis were gathered. Ninety-seven dogs with PS were included. A murmur grade ≥IV/VI was predictive of severe PS (area under curve (AUC) = 0.71; sensitivity (Se) = 95%; specificity (Sp) = 33%; p = 0.003). In lead II, P wave amplitude >0.35 mV (AUC = 0.67; Se = 31%; Sp = 100%; p = 0.038), Q wave < 0.15 mV (AUC = 0.70; Se = 70%; Sp = 59%; p = 0.0015), R wave < 0.87 mV (AUC = 0.66; Se = 67%; Sp = 69%; p = 0.006), and S wave > 0.37 mV (AUC = 0.80; Se = 72%; Sp = 85%; p < 0.0001) were predictive of severe PS. The extent of right deviation of the mean electrical axis of the QRS complex was correlated with the pulmonary pressure gradient (r = 0.648; p < 0.0001). In conclusion, a systolic murmur with intensity ≥IV/VI, a P wave amplitude >0.35 mV, low amplitude of Q and R waves, deep S waves in lead II, and right axis deviation of the QRS complex in a young dog are predictive of severe PS.

Resumen: Introducción: La Sociedad Española de Cardiología Pediátrica y Cardiopatías Congénitas recomienda realizar ecocardiografía transtorácica (ETT) en todo menor de 2 años con soplo. En 2014 la Asociación Americana de Pediatría publicó los primeros criterios de uso apropiado de ETT pediátrica ambulatoria (CUA) como guía para promover un uso costo-eficiente de la misma. Nuestro objetivo fue analizar los CUA y otros factores clínicos como predictores de cardiopatía congénita (CC) en menores de 2 años con soplo para desarrollar una estrategia de derivación eficiente y segura. Pacientes y método: Estudio de casos y controles en menores de 2 años derivados por pediatría de atención primaria a cardiología pediátrica por soplo durante 4 años. Mediante análisis multivariante se determinó un modelo predictivo de CC. Resultados: Se incluyeron 688 pacientes con 129 casos (19%) de CC. La edad menor a 3 meses (odds ratio ajustada [ORa] 3,8[1,5-8,4]; p=0,030) y cumplimiento de CUA (ORa 16,3[9,4-28,3]; p

Heart murmurs are detected frequently when auscultating horses and certain murmurs can usually be linked to specific valvular regurgitations. Limited information exists about the accuracy of these broad rules in warmblood horses and the influence of grade of the regurgitation and dimensional changes on murmur intensity. This study aims to clarify the accuracy of cardiac auscultation in warmblood horses and the influence of the grade of regurgitation and dimensional changes on the loudness of the murmur. In this retrospective study, 822 warmblood horses presented for cardiac examination in a large equine referral center in northern Germany underwent a thorough cardiac auscultation. In total, 653 of these revealed one or more heart murmurs. Most common auscultatory findings were left-sided systolic murmurs (68%) or left-sided diastolic murmurs (15%). On 635 of these horses, an echocardiographic examination was performed, revealing regurgitations of the mitral valve as the most common valvular regurgitation (77%) followed by regurgitations of the aortic valve (23%). Thirty-one percent of horses that underwent echocardiographic examination displayed dimensional changes of one or more compartments of the heart, with the left atrium being most affected (21%), followed by the left ventricle (13%). The main goal of this study was to link certain auscultatory findings with results of the echocardiographic examinations, trying to determine whether auscultation and echocardiography agreed on the valve affected, as well as to find out if loudness of the murmur coincided with grade of regurgitation and presence of dimensional changes. Agreement between auscultation and cardiac ultrasound was substantial (Kappa 0.74) if one or more murmurs and regurgitations were present and almost perfect (Kappa 0.94) if only one murmur and one regurgitation were found. Auscultation was particularly well suited for detection of left-sided systolic and diastolic murmurs, with 87% of left-sided systolic murmurs being caused by a mitral valve regurgitation and 81% of left-sided diastolic murmurs originating from an aortic valve regurgitation. We found a fair agreement between the grade of regurgitation and the respective murmur. Association was particularly good between mild regurgitations and low-grade murmurs, while differentiation between moderate to severe regurgitation based upon the loudness of the murmur was less reliable. Dimensional changes were usually linked to more severe regurgitations and higher-grade murmurs. However, a direct correlation between murmur intensity and the presence or severity of dimensional changes, independent of the grade of valvular regurgitation, could not be established in this cohort of horses.

Background: Infants born with congenital heart disease (CHD) typically present different clinical manifestations which make this condition hard to diagnose. Considering serious complications arising from misdiagnosis, inventing new methods and/or improving traditional diagnostic approaches has always been a research objective. Methods: In this cross-sectional analysis, which took place in Children's Medical Center in Tehran, 150 infants admitted to an intensive care unit were evaluated based on echocardiographic findings from 2015 to 2017. Echocardiography was done due to abnormalities in physical examination and/or oxygen saturation level. Results: The sensitivity of clinical study value was 82% and the negative predictive value was 20%. The sensitivity of arterial oxygen saturation immediately after admission to the neonatal intensive care was 92%, the specificity was 34%, positive predictive value was 56% and negative predictive value was 25%. Conclusion: In terms of high sensitivity, clinical symptom including tachypnea, cyanosis, arrhythmias, respiratory distress, cardiac murmur, or arterial oxygen saturation level in newborns may be useful for screening CHD. Among the clinical manifestations, cyanosis and respiratory distress are more valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to characterize changes in maternal cardiovascular variables throughout the reproductive cycle in healthy bitches and determine whether magnitude of pregnancy-induced changes correlates to litter size. Eleven client-owned breeding bitches were included in the study. Bitches were enrolled prospectively and followed up longitudinally throughout a single reproductive cycle. Physical examination, echocardiography, blood pressure analysis, and plasma volume estimation were performed during proestrus, diestrus (early and late pregnancy), and anestrus. Fetal echocardiography was performed during late pregnancy. Data were compared across visits using a linear mixed-effects model, and correlation between variables was assessed. Compared with proestrus, no significant changes were observed at any phase of the cycle in heart rate, blood pressure, echocardiographic measurements of left ventricular size or function, or echocardiographic calculations of stroke volume or cardiac output. Estimated plasma volume increased by 29.6% in early pregnancy (p < 0.001) and 70.7% in late pregnancy (p < 0.001). Fetal echocardiography was feasible in a subset of fetuses for each bitch. There was a significant correlation between estimated total fetal cardiac output and late pregnancy increase in maternal cardiac output (p = 0.0025). The incidence of physiologic heart murmurs ranged from 5 of 11 (45%) bitches in proestrus to 2 of 11 (18%) bitches in late pregnancy, attributed to variations in aortic outflow velocity. Hemodynamic alterations in pregnant bitches do not result in consistently detectable echocardiographic changes, suggesting that cardiac screening could be diagnostic at any time during a reproductive cycle. Physiologic heart murmurs were common in this study population and not obviously associated with the reproductive cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Heart murmurs are detected commonly in apparently healthy cats during routine physical examination, and Doppler echocardiography ultimately is required to identify the source of flow turbulence causing the murmur. However, in some cases, the origin of the murmur cannot be identified on echocardiographic examination, even by experienced clinicians. The application of gentle pressure with the ultrasound transducer against the chest wall of a cat can induce temporary narrowing of the mid‐right ventricular (RV) lumen, causing blood flow turbulence even in the absence of cardiac abnormalities. Objectives/Hypotheses: To evaluate the effect of pressure of the ultrasound transducer against the chest wall of cats during echocardiography (provocative testing) on RV blood flow. The main hypothesis is that provocative testing can increase RV outflow velocity and cause flow turbulence. The second hypothesis is that the effect of this maneuver is independent of changes in heart rate during testing. Animals Sixty‐one client‐owned, apparently healthy cats with heart murmurs on physical examination. Methods: Retrospective review of echocardiographic examinations of 723 cats presented for investigation of a heart murmur. Results: Outflow systolic velocity increased from 1.05 ± 0.26 to 1.94 ± 0.51 m/s during provocative testing (P <.0001); no correlation was found between RV outflow peak velocity and heart rate during provocative testing (P =.34; r = 0.1237). Conclusions and Clinical Relevance: Right ventricular outflow tract obstruction and associated heart murmur can be iatrogenically induced in apparently healthy cats by increasing pressure on the right chest wall with an ultrasound probe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]