No statistical difference was found in the prevalence of heart murmurs (P = 0.8) or in
the intensity of heart murmurs (P = 0.8) between dogs born in 2001 and dogs born in 2003.
In the group of dogs born in 2001, there was no statistical difference in
the intensity of heart murmurs between females and males, but in the group of dogs born 2003, and for all dogs, male dogs with heart murmurs had murmurs of greater intensity than females with heart murmurs: this result was in agreement with findings from earlier studies [10].
Male dogs had greater
intensity of heart murmurs than female dogs (P = 0.04).
The intensity of the heart murmur does not tell us whether the murmur is a result of serious disease or not.
Another study demonstrated that MRA and
the intensity of the heart murmur were significant predictors of an increase in LA diameter (Olsen et al., 2003).
Not exact matches
The
heart murmur may be constant, which means it is always audible at the same level
of intensity.
For the majority
of heart diseases in our pets, the severity
of cardiac disease is usually directly related to the loudness (or
intensity)
of the
murmur however, this is not the case for all
heart diseases such as ventricular septal defects, where
murmur intensity may be lower or there may not even be a
murmur.
Heart murmurs are characterized based on their location over the chest, the type
of sound they make (e.g. if the
murmur rises and falls sharply it described as a crescendo - decrescendo or ejection
murmur), the timing
of the
murmur within the cycle
of the heartbeat, and the
intensity of the
murmur.