Functional Cardiac Murmurs

Functional murmurs (also called physiologic murmurs) can occur in the absence of valvular pathology.  An example would be an aortic systolic ejection murmur caused by a high cardiac output state.  Very high flow velocities in the aorta can lead to turbulent flow which will result in a murmurs during the ejection phase of the cardiac cycle.  Examples of this include high cardiac outputs in trained athletes and high output states during anemia. Another example is pregnancy where the increase in cardiac output especially when coupled with anemia can result in physiologic ejection murmurs.

Revised 04/05/07