MEDICAL AREA   

Medicina dello Sport 2009 March;62(1):91-6

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

The heart murmur during the sports medicine examination: functional or pathological?

Carrozza M. ¹, Biasini V. ², Fallavollita L. ²,. Laconi E. ¹

¹ UTIC ASL avezzano-Sulmona, Presidio Ospedaliero di Avezzano, L’Aquila, Italia 2 Centro FMSI Scoppito, L’Aquila, Italia

Aim. The aim of this study was to help solve the dilemma about heart murmur: is it functional or pathologic?
Methods. At physical examination for sports fitness certification, 110 out of 697 subjects were noted to present with heart murmur. These were then followed up by Doppler transthoracic echocardiography.
Results. Remarkable echocardiographic findings included: moderate aortic valve regurgitation with dilatation of the aortic root; mild aortic valve regurgitation; mild mitral valve prolapse; a small transatrial and a small transventricular defect.
Conclusion. Based on our analysis, more than the half (70%) of heart murmurs were not clinically or hemodynamically significant. Only 30% of all murmurs were associated with a cardiac pathology. COCIS guidelines were applied for sports fitness certification.