In: Nursing
Why is heart murmur sometimes present in anemic patients?
Why is heart murmur sometimes present in anemic patients?
Anemia is a medical condition in which our body lacks adequate red blood cells to carry sufficient oxygen to the body tissues. This decline in the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood has significant effects on the heart. To increase oxygen delivery, the heart rate and ejection fraction might increase, possibly leads to systolic ejection murmur and also tachycardia. The murmur is also called as a flow murmur. It is usually stated that a systolic murmur is frequently heard in the mitral area in most of the anemic patients. Such murmurs infrequently are heard at the base of the heart at the aortic area, but more usually caught over the second and third left intercostal areas. The main reason for this systolic ejection murmur is an increased volume of anemic blood (dilute blood) flowing through a normal aortic valve, creating turbulent flow and that is hearing as a murmur similar to aortic stenosis. A diastolic murmur is also rarely noted in patients with fever and severe anemia due to bacterial endocarditis or active rheumatic heart disease