The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-08-03

DR.. Clendening will answer
questions Of general interest
only, and then only through
his column.
people a certain number are found
to have "a systolic murmur OF the
heart. They hadn't the slightest
idea they had it before the medical
examiner turned it up and in fact
didn't have any notion they had
anything the matter with their
hearts and imagined they were In
perfect health. Some of them
write me in utter bewilderment
wanting to know what it is all
about.
These letters take me back TO a
dark night in my own life, when l
was a medical student, and | was
sitting up in my room reading
Cabot's Physical Diagnosis and l
had a brand new stethescope and
something in the text of the book
prompted me to put the stethe-
scope on the apex of my own heart.
And there l heard a murmur. Then
for a second or two my heart
entirely stopped beating so l
couldn't hear it. When it resumed
it's activities | listened again and
sure enough l was certain 1t was
q murmur.
Well, put the stethoscope down
and faced death. A sob came into
my throat to think of one so
young, so full of promise passing
from this bright world to the
realms Of shade. planned an ex-
tremely affecting funeral. But
time wore on and resumed my
duties and more or less got used to
the idea.
Murmur Not Serious
And that, my children, was
nearly forty years ago and the
funeral hasn't taken place yet, and
I'm still going strong. don't ex-
anime my own heart as often as
| used to, but when l do ! cannot
detect any murmurs in it. Perhaps
my technique has become more re-
fined and | don't call just any old
sound a murmur. And perhaps
that is the trouble with some of
the medical examiners of the draft
boards-they do call any old sound
Q murmur.
Still another and more authentic
experience comes to mind. During
the last unpleasantness, neigh
Dor of mine came to me in great
distress because the medical ex-
amlner Of the army had found
heart murmur on him, and he was
desperately anxious to get into the
service. ! was a medical officer
and I examined him and found he
did indeed have a murmur. But
l didn't think it would interfere
with his activities and managed to
get him into the ground forces Of
an aviation unit.
Well, | hadn't seen him for q
long while until the other day and
said-"How is that heart MUIR
muir ?"-and he said, THAT is
worth $4,000 a year to me, insur-
ance compensation, and / feel
fine" And he has been carrying
that murmur, my friends, for over
twenty-five years to my positive
knowledge.
So can't take these heart muir
murs too seriously.
Examination of Students
am confirmed in this by a re-
port of the examination of Har-
ward College students. Of 1855
of these who had an especial heart
examination, $50 (12 qo) were
found to have a systolic heart
murmur. In 248 the murmur was
classified as functional. One hun
bred twenty seven students 40
had heart murmurs Of such inten-
sity that the examiner was unwill-
ing to classify them as functional.
A good many of these were fol-
lowed for two to four years, an
it was never possible to make a
positive diagnosis of organic heart
disease, nor did it interfere in any
way with their activities.
The fact is a systolc murmur
alone does not mean anything
The important findings to throw
light on the murmur are the size
of the heart, the rhythm Of the
pulse, etc. "a systolic murmur
means one timed as taking place
during the contraction period OF
the heart. A diastolic murmur
heard between beats is more
serious.
| suppose s0po Of all practicins
physicians could detect a franz
heart murmur. But there are lot,
Of heart sounds that are in ant
between and don't suppose I0T
Of practicing physicians could GER
tainly determine those. But tn,
safe thing for the army is 10 cal
them murmurs and reject them
And those are the ones who writ.
y,na trouhiad laffara