Echocardiography in a Patient with a New Murmur

Abstract

Heart murmurs are common in cardiac care unit (CCU) patients. As many of CCU patients are intubated and unable to provide medical history, the physical exam becomes crucial in piecing together a patient’s medical history. Once a new murmur is identified, echocardiography can be a helpful tool in the critical care setting to further elucidate the cardiac abnormalities of a CCU patient. Whereas many patients have murmurs representing manifestations of chronic diseases, this chapter focuses on the diagnosis and etiology of murmurs that are presumably new at the time of CCU admission and represent an acute change in clinical status.