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Can fibrotic bands in the aortic arch cause innocent murmurs in childhood?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2006

Joerg Nothroff
Affiliation:
Department of Paediatric Cardiology, University Children's Hospital Goettingen, Georg-August-University Goettingen, Germany
Sybille Gundula Suemenicht
Affiliation:
Department of Paediatric Cardiology, University Children's Hospital Goettingen, Georg-August-University Goettingen, Germany
Armin Wessel
Affiliation:
Department of Paediatric Cardiology, University Children's Hospital Goettingen, Georg-August-University Goettingen, Germany
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Abstract

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Children with innocent murmurs are often referred to a paediatric cardiologist for diagnosis. The most common murmurs of early childhood are the so-called Still's murmurs, followed by ejection murmurs across the pulmonary or aortic vessels, and the venous hum. There also exists a high coincidence of murmurs with the presence of tendinous structures traversing the cavity of the left ventricle. In this report, we describe 6 patients who presented to our outpatient clinic with cardiac murmurs. None of them had abnormalities on the clinical examination, electrocardiographic, or echocardiographic investigation. They presented a similar murmur that was also audible over the back. On closer examination of the aorta with cross-sectional echocardiography, we discovered echogenic, tendinous structures crossing the lumen of the descending aorta or the aortic arch. Whilst we are not yet able to prove that the cords produced the innocent murmurs, the association is highly suggestive.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
2001 Cambridge University Press