Home Health Guide

Hutt News, Volume 20, Issue 44, 30 April 1947, Page 2

Home Health Guide

HEART MURMURS IX <"HIi,imEN (By the Department of Health.) In routine medical examinations of children heart murmurs are found in about 10 in every 100 children. Of these three are considered to be organic in nature, and of serious import, and seven are reckoned to be functional and of no moment. The few serious ones may have arisen in infectious 01 other diseases. may

have been congenital, or come from a previous attack of rheumatic fever.

When a heart murmur is discovered, the problem is to determine whether it is going to matter to the child or not. A history of rheumatic lever or St. Vitus* Dance, or bad scarlet fever, or some other severe illness, often gives a clue to damage in the .past. Then all that matters is whether the leaking valve is going to interfere with efficiency or not. Tins is testfd by making the child do some exercise, and watching how soon the heart rate returns to normal. There is a normal time in which a heart should settle down to its ordinary rate after exercise. If this test is satisfactory, and there's no story of distress or breathlessness atter games or climbing hills, atrl mother has noticed no undue fatigue after games or work ut home, the chances are the heart will stand up to a full life ahead.

The child is given no inkling of what the investigation is about. It would be a tragedy to get it into a child's head that he had a form of heart disease that was to mean pampering, if there was no real need to limit activity in any way. The teacher and the parent will be warned there is a leaking valve in the heart, that it's apparently standing up to full activity, and so long as there's no (lagging or distress, no one is to worry about it. Of course, if it is decided the murmur is purely functional, r.o notice is taken of the condition at all. If there's any doubt about whether a heart murmur is serious or not, a specialist will decide. He'll delve into the. history and previous health again, watch the response to exercise, and engage the help ot X-rays and electro-cardio-graph if necessary. Remember, never tell a child there's damage in the heart unless a medical adviser recommends such a course.