What could be the cause of a systolic heart murmur in a child?
Many children have heart murmurs, they don’t usually represent pathology. I agree with Dr. Frank that it’s important not to freak out at this stage. Heart murmurs can be produced by turbulent blood flow within the heart and great vessels. Most are caused by normal variations within the structure of the heart. It always needs investigating because occasionally murmurs can represent pathology and be caused by problems with the heart valves or holes between the pumping chambers. The tests your son will have will exclude this possibility. He likely has an innocent murmur which basically means that even though there may be an abnormality within the heart causing the murmur, unless it’s effecting the hearts performance, it is a normal variation and no action needs to be taken. Most innocent murmurs occur because blood is being pumped faster than normal or usual. Some murmurs are only audible under certain conditions, for example if you have a high fever, or a fast heart rate. In children, he
