Heart murmur detected, having tests, anyone had the same?

[AliceR]

I had a heart murmur in childhood so my midwife thought it best to get the obstetrician to check me out, I've also been having palpitations and shortness of breath. The obstetrician found that my murmur had returned and sent me straight for an ECG which came back and he said he didn't know if it was normal. I have to have an echo heart scan and wear a heart monitor for 24 hours, was just wondering if anyone has had the same experience and what happened about it? I am currently 13 weeks

[DrFluffy]

Try not to worry too much - the most common cause of cardiac murmur in pregnancy is secondary to the normsl increase in blood volume, and is a 'physiological murmur' rather than a pathological one. Palpitations and shortness of breath are also both entirely normal in pregnancy, but are also obviously signs of cardiovascular problems. Your obstetrician is doing the right thing given your history (murmurs in childhood can also be normal by the way - for example Still's murmur) by organising an echo - if your heart is structurally normal, then there really should not be a problem, if there is a problem you will be referred to a joint obstetric/cardiac clinic for close monitoring.

Hope all is ok xxx

[DrFluffy in reply to DrFluffy]

Plus, not idea why, as we all went to medical school and learnt how to analyse ECGs, but as a medical SHO on call, it's annoyingly common to get bleeps from obstetricians, gynaecologists, surgeons etc to come an interpret an ECG... Can make you quite sweary at 3am!!!

[AliceR]

Thanks so much for the reply, I did have to get the ECG interpreted by someone else before i had to take it back to the obstetrician! I guess I'll just wait and see what the echo shows up and am feeling pretty confident it will be ok as I was fit and healthy before pregnancy, just curious as to what the murmur sound may be due to

[DrFluffy]

Increased blood volume = turbulent flow across heart valves = murmur. That would be the most common cause of murmurs in pregnancy. Xx