42 years old and go to my 18th annual flight physical. Doc listens to my heart and tells me “you ever been diagnosed with a murmur? You have a machinery murmur”.
After a long discussion I’m not really sure what to make of this. He prescribed a daily aspirin and that he will recheck me every week.
Is this something that can be brought on by age/activity?
What says the Slowtwitch?
If you are not posting from somewhere in Mongolia, get an echocardiogram and define this murmur of which you speak.
Had an echocardiogram in 2010 for an unrelated issue. It didn’t show anything.
From the oracle known as google a machinery murmur is medically known as patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a persistent opening between two major blood vessels leading from the heart. This normal connection, called the ductus arteriosus, is a necessary part of the baby’s circulatory system before birth. It usually closes shortly after the baby is born. However, in some individuals it remains open (patent). When this occurs, it’s called a patent ductus arterioles.
A small patent ductus arteriosus often doesn’t cause symptoms or problems and may never need treatment. Untreated, a large patent ductus arteriosus can cause too much poorly oxygenated blood to flow through the heart, weakening the heart muscle and causing heart failure and other complications.
Treatment options for repairing a patent ductus arteriosus include monitoring, medications, and closure by cardiac catheterization or surgery.
I don’t have any other symptoms that would normally be present in this though i.e. shortness of breath.
Just wondering if there are others out there who have or known people who’ve had this.
More likely an aortic insufficiency murmur.
If no one has heard it before and if you are not in Sudan, echocardiogram.
Echocardiogram here I come
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42 years old and go to my 18th annual flight physical. Doc listens to my heart and tells me “you ever been diagnosed with a murmur? You have a machinery murmur”.
After a long discussion I’m not really sure what to make of this. He prescribed a daily aspirin and that he will recheck me every week.
Is this something that can be brought on by age/activity?
What says the Slowtwitch?
As others have said, get an Echo… and fire your doctor. What is he/she planning on getting out of “put you on aspirin and recheck you every week”?
This is not “evidenced based medicine”. Get a friction’ echo and find out what the significance is!
As you say a machinery murmur is associated with pda, which is congenital and would have been heard, most likely in the past. Many physicians, especially adult physicians,would be less experienced in diagnosing murmurs( I don’t know that you said if this was a cardiologist?).
That being said, adult sonographers could easily miss a PDA on a echo, unless the also Do pediatric and look for and are use to seeing it.
In any case, if you have any type of new murmur you could probably benefit from an echo to find out what is really causing the murmur.
I would lay pretty good odds you don’t have a PDA!!