Can A Heart Murmur Lead To Heart Failure?

— -- Question: Can a heart murmur lead to heart failure?

Answer: You know many times when ordinary citizens are going to see their physician and a stethoscope is placed on their chest and the doctor has a curious look, lifts up from the examination and says, "I think I hear a heart murmur." Don't panic. That doesn't necessarily mean that the heart is terribly diseased. It could mean that a heart valve is leaking or is sticking and one of the manifestations of that unfortunately might be the development of heart failure. But so many heart murmurs are innocent that I wouldn't want anyone to align the idea that you have a heart murmur with the risk of developing heart failure.

Now, if you discover that you have heart valve disease and your physicians can help you sort that out pretty quickly, that is a very real risk factor for developing heart failure if the disease isn't treated well. Fortunately in today's medicine we have excellent ways of treating heart valve disease so the likelihood that heart valve disease, if we recognize it soon enough, should go on to lead to heart failure is pretty low and that's good news.