An assessment of the ability of diplomates, practitioners, and students to describe and interpret recordings of heart murmurs and arrhythmia

The ability of clinicians, ie, 10 veterinary students, 10 general practitioners, and 10 board certified internists, to describe and interpret common normal and abnormal heart sounds was assessed. Recordings of heart sounds from 7 horses with a variety of normal and abnormal rhythms, heart sounds, and murmurs were analyzed by digital sonography. The perception of the presence or absence of the heart sounds S1, S2, and S4 was similar for clinicians irrespective of their level of training and was in agreement with the sonographic interpretation on 89, 82, and 78% of occasions, respectively. However, practitioners were less likely to correctly describe the presence of S3. The heart rhythm was correctly described as being regular or irregular on 89% of occasions, and this outcome was not affected by level of training. Differentiation of the type of irregularity was less reliable. The perception of the intensity of a heart murmur was accurate and correlated with the grade assigned in the living horses, R2 = .68, and with sonographic measurements of the murmur's intensity, R2 = .69. Clinicians overestimated the duration of cardiac murmurs, particularly that of the loud systolic murmur. Only diplomates could reliably differentiate systolic from diastolic murmurs. The ability to diagnose the underlying cardiac problem was significantly affected by training; diplomates, practitioners, and undergraduates made the correct diagnosis on 53, 33, and 29% of occasions, respectively. The poor diagnostic ability of practitioners and the lack of improvement in diagnostic skill after the 2nd year of veterinary school emphasizes the need for better teaching of these skills. Digital sonograms that combine sound files with synchronous visual interpretations may be useful in this regard.