What is a grade 2/6 systolic heart murmur?
Murmurs can be classified by seven different characteristics: timing, shape, location, radiation, intensity, pitch and quality.[3] Timing refers to whether the murmur is a systolic or diastolic murmur. Shape refers to the intensity over time; murmurs can be crescendo, decrescendo or crescendo-decrescendo. Location refers to where the heart murmur is usually auscultated best. There are six places on the anterior chest to listen for heart murmurs; each of the locations roughly corresponds to a specific part of the heart. The first five of the six locations are adjacent to the sternum. The six locations are: the 2nd right intercostal space the 2nd to 5th left intercostal spaces the 5th mid-clavicular intercostal space. Radiation refers to where the sound of the murmur radiates. The general rule of thumb is that the sound radiates in the direction of the blood flow. Intensity refers to the loudness of the murmur, and is graded on a scale from 0-6/6. Pitch can be low, medium or high and is
