CARDIAC MURMURS IN SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN

Key words: Cardiac murmurs, Congenital heart disease

A cardiac murmur is a frequent finding in the school age child: on average, 1 out of 4 children presents with a murmur in this age group and in 1out of 50 of these children a “late onset” congenital heart disease is present. Pediatricians should be able to distinguish on clinical grounds functional murmurs from organic ones. Typical features of both functional and organic murmurs are described by the Author and simple criteria are proposed to help the pediatrician to identify cardiac murmurs that need further investigation by ecocardiography.