Cardiac Auscultation in Sports Medicine: Strategies to Improve Clinical Care

Publication/Presentation Date

3-1-2012

Abstract

Cardiac auscultation is an important part of the preparticipation physical examination of athletes. Sudden death remains a rare but tragic event among athletes. The most common cause of sudden death among young athletes in the United States continues to be hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which may or may not present with a typical heart murmur. Many clinicians do not possess sufficient proficiency in recognizing abnormal heart murmurs. New insights in the field of auditory learning suggest that cardiac auscultation is more of a technical skill than an intellectual one. Intensive repetition of abnormal heart murmurs has been shown to improve proficiency in cardiac auscultation markedly. Sample audio files of two important murmurs, i.e., an innocent murmur and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, are provided online with this review.

Volume

11

Issue

2

First Page

78

Last Page

84

ISSN

1537-8918

Disciplines

Cardiology | Medical Sciences | Medical Specialties | Medicine and Health Sciences

PubMedID

22410698

Department(s)

Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, Department of Medicine Fellows and Residents

Document Type

Article

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