heart murmurs

Heart Murmurs

What are heart murmurs? How heart murmurs affect youth? Heart murmurs affect youth people and children. There are two types of heart murmurs; innocent and non-innocents. Although this disease affects the heart, one can be classified as normal in some people, and it will not affect their normal life. Heart murmurs can be found in valves such as the aorta. This problem can be treated, or the damaged valves can be replaced with another kind of valve. Open-heart surgery is one of the most common ways to help kids with this problem.
Many people do not know that heart diseases are birth defects or congenital defects. In some hearts; diseases, are genetically inherited from close relatives such as parents or grandparents. Children sometimes look incredibly similar to their parents. What few people think about is that they may not just look like their parent, but they also may have the same diseases that their parents had. Furthermore, they can inherit problems that their parent never knew they had, and their child may develop it and it could be serious for the child. When you have a birthmark, you will find out that your mother or father has a birthmark on the same part of their body where yours is. Defects on organs or veins and arteries are like birthmarks inside your body. These defects sometimes could be innocent, but they also could be something that it might put your health at risk.
The heart is one of the most important organs of your body, “its size is around the size of your fist, a strong muscle that pumps blood around the body” (www.kidshealth.org). The heart can inherit diseases genetically or a person’s heart can have a birth defect. This is called congenital defects. Congenital defect means a person who was born with that condition. These defects are often found in veins, arteries, and valves. Valves permit blood to flow to a specific direction. Veins are a system of branching vessels or tubes taking blood from most parts of the body to the heart. An artery is a blood vessel that takes blood from the heart to any part of the body. Sometimes these defects can disappear when children are growing up or if they are treated medically.
One common defect in the heart is heart murmurs. “Heart murmurs are abnormal heart sounds that are produced as a result of turbulent blood flow that is sufficient to produce audible noise”. As the name implies, it is just a sound that could be normal in some hearts, but they also can be produced “They may be cause by emotions, such as stress fear or by health problems, such a fever (www.americanheart.org). Heart murmurs can be heard by just getting close to the chest. Blood rushing through defective arteries or veins is the reason for this sound that comes out of the chest. According to Dr. Rosenfeld, a pediatric cardiologist, who works at Children’s Hospital Oakland, the percentage of children having congenital heart defects is 1 percent of the population, but when there is a background of heart problems in the family, the percentage increases to 5 percent.
There are two types of heart murmurs innocent and non-innocent heart murmurs. Innocent heart murmurs are the most common type of heart murmurs. They are known as functional murmurs. Fever, anemia, or a thin chest produces innocent heart murmurs which goes away when the fever stops, or the anemia is treated. The second type is non-innocent heart murmurs, which indicate that something abnormal is happening with the heart or major arteries of the heart. A narrow valve, a leaking valve, or a hole in the heart could cause this. Narrow valves mean that valves such as the aorta, pulmonary, or aortic valves have problems with their normal functions because they are small, and that cause heart murmurs as a result. The blood is rushing through the valves, but the valve hole is not big enough to let the blood flow properly. This problem makes the aorta work harder than its normal function. The aorta is the biggest artery in the heart, which is also one of the most important and largest arteries of the heart. (www.texheartsurgeons.com).
A normal aorta has three leaflets that allow blood flow from the left side of the heart, which is where the blood gets oxygen, to the head and other organs of the body. The function of this artery is one of the most important because the width and length make this artery take more blood to most of the organs, but most important to the head (www.cts.usc.edu).
A common defect, that is usually a congenital defect, is when the aorta has two leaflets instead of three. This defect is called bicuspid aortic valve. Children with this defect may develop narrowing or leakage of the aortic valve. This condition may not be so serious for children from the age of one to five years, but when kids start doing exercise or playing sports such as football, soccer, or any other sport that involves running or lifting heavy, their condition can become serious. At this point children start having problems such as shortness of breath, dizziness, passing out, stunted growth, fatigue, and weakness (www.texheartsurgeons.com). Just getting angry or be worried is a serious problem for kids with this type of condition. The parents or relatives sometime overprotect children with this condition. This is something normal in parents because they do not want anything bad to happen to their child, but this is not the right thing to do. Kids with heart murmurs could be as normal as any other kid. You can see these kids play anything and do things as any other healthy kid does as long as they are medically treated. Being informed about heart murmurs could be important fro parents not just to know about what can happen but also to know about what children can do and for how long they can do it, this can reduce parents’ anxiety that something bad might happen to their children. Knowledge is important for families that have children with heart murmurs; it may save their lives. One of the most common problems is the bicuspid aortic valve or abnormal aorta valve; this particular problem has no way to be fixed yet. Because of the importance of this artery, doctors have created ways to remove the damaged artery and replace it with man made arteries, or use arteries from animal such as pigs, cows, or human donors.
The man-made arteries are called mechanical valve which is made from man made materials that are very durable. But for this type of valve it needs anticoagulants because there is a tendency for blood to clot. This anticoagulant or often called “blood thinner” helps the blood to move more and do not get stuck on the mechanical valve. The down side of this solution is that people who use blood thinner have to be more careful because a hard blow to their head may cause more damage than for a person who does not use blood thinner, or a simple cut will bleed more than normal; and it will take more time to heal. The mechanical valve however, is very durable as mentioned above. It could last from thirty five to forty years before needing to be replaced. This means people with a mechanical valve will have to take blood thinner for the rest of their lives, but would not have to feel another painful surgery until four decades later.
Another treatment for heart murmurs is to replace the defective valve with a human or animal valve. Valves from animals or human cadavers are not as durable as the mechanical valve, but have their advantages. This type of valve is called a biological valve, or in the simple way animal valve. The animal valve is taken from pigs and cows which is called xenograft. Xenograft is made of tissues of animals. But human valves can also be used; this type of valve is called allograft. Allograft is valves taken from human’s cadaver. One advantage is that it does not have to be the exactly valve that the person alive needs. It may be a pulmonary valve for example, and it can work well in the place of an aortic valve. One of the characteristics of the animal valve is that the person with this valve will not need anticoagulant or blood thinner. This allows the person to have a normal life and not to worry about his heart problem, even to the point that this person will forget that he was sick before (www.cts.usc.edu). It sounds so good, that the disadvantage of this valve is sometime not remembered. The biological or animal valve is a dead valve, which means that it will not grow or make any physical change as the rest of the body changes; therefore it will need to be replaced. The life of an animal valve is from ten to twenty years, and in some cases this valve can even get damaged before the ten years have past.
Countries such as The United States and other wealthy countries do this kind of surgery with the governments’ economical help. But in third world countries, such as those in Central America, this is not possible. Even if it were possible, hospitals do not have the right equipment to do this type of surgery. Some children are helped by programs from other countries and are sent to other countries to get this type of surgery done. Groups of children are sent far away from home, most of the time without their parents. Parents usually do not go because they either cannot go because they do not have enough money to pay the trip, or because they have more children to take care of. This surgery is more common in babies and teenagers. It is the second most common surgery in the world with regard to the heart. This procedure could take from four to eight hours, and patients usually do not wake up until the next day. Before the surgery children are checked two times per month, just to make sure that nothing has changed in their heart. Also a lot of exams are done to verify the inside of the heart.
A very common surgery is a catheterization which is a small surgery that is done on the upper side of the leg, where a camera is introduced to see the inside of the heart with more details (www.americasheart.org). This surgery helps to have a better view of what is going on inside of the heart, and also helps to make sure if the replacement of the valve is needed right away or if the patient can wait a little bit longer. Sometimes another tube is introduced which is like a balloon that goes all the way to the heart or to be specific to the aorta when this one is narrow. This tube is inflated to open up the aorta to let more blood past through. During this period of time, children (especially teenagers) get frustrated because an open heart surgery could be a way to get better or to die during the procedure. If the aorta bleeds, it will take no more than thirty seconds for a patient to die. The percentage of safety of this surgery is 84 percent. This means that from every one hundred cases sixteen may die during or after the surgery (Dr. Rosenfeld).
In conclusion, not all heart diseases are critical, but do not give a chance to any diseases. It does not matter how small the problem can be, anything can take your life away if you do not pay attention to it. One small problem leads to another one even bigger and so on. Be aware of your body. Get to know yourself because your body is the temple where your soul lives. Keep it clean, treated right; life does not have second chances. Do not wait until the problem gets worst and there is nothing doctors can do. Life is just one and if you have not notice that there is no repair when this one is gone. Do not be afraid to know what is bothering you; get help even if it is a small pain or even a fever. Surgery, may be what people worry about the most, but again if it is for your own benefit and there is not other choice, go ahead and do it. Talk to your doctor and ask him questions, anything that you think is important even if it is silly. Do not think doctors will laugh they are there to make you feel better, and they will do what they think is the best for you.

this was my personal experience! leave comments or questions