In school children, cardiac auscultation by machine (Phonocardioscan) has shown promise as a screening procedure. To determine its effectiveness as a screening procedure in adults, results obtained by ...

When the doctor places that cold stethoscope on your chest, she’s listening for two distinct sounds – lub-DUB. “You can almost set your clock to what you are hearing,” said internist Mary Ann Kuzma.

My rationale for beginning at the mitral area is to compare the auscultatory findings with those previously obtained by percussion and palpation (see Nonauscultatory Cardiac Exam: Assessing the ...

Listen to the heart We must not let time constraints and busy schedules eliminate the most important aspect of the patient encounter: human touch. When I was in nursing school, I was able to observe ...

IT IS possible that the existence of the heart sounds was known to Hippocrates 1 and even that he made use of his knowledge for diagnostic purposes, but William Harvey 2 seems to have been the first ...

When a doctor puts a stethoscope on a patient's chest, he or she usually asks the patient to breathe in deeply and breathe out slowly. This is quite common when a patient has a cold or serious cough: ...

Editor's Note: Before reading this article, it is recommended that readers first review "Nonauscultatory Cardiac Exam: Assessing the Elderly Person," previously published on Medscape. As with most ...