Question

Difficulty: HardCardiovascular System

Match each patient's clinical presentation with the most likely corresponding auscultatory finding and its characteristic response to dynamic maneuvers.

  • A 22-year-old athlete with a family history of sudden cardiac death experiences exertional syncope.Crescendo-decrescendo systolic murmur at the left lower sternal border that increases in intensity during the strain phase of the Valsalva maneuver.
  • A 78-year-old man presents with exertional dyspnea and demonstrates a delayed and diminished carotid pulse.Late-peaking systolic ejection murmur at the right second intercostal space that decreases in intensity upon standing.
  • A 28-year-old woman with Marfan syndrome presents with occasional palpitations and atypical chest pain.Late systolic murmur with a preceding click that moves closer to the first heart sound (S1) upon standing.
  • A 45-year-old man with a history of untreated syphilis presents with widened pulse pressure and bounding peripheral pulses.Early diastolic decrescendo murmur best heard along the left sternal border that increases in intensity with sustained handgrip.
  • A 4-week-old infant with poor weight gain, tachypnea, and diaphoresis during feeding.Harsh holosystolic murmur at the left lower sternal border that increases in intensity with sustained handgrip.

Answer

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy matches with the systolic murmur that increases with Valsalva; aortic stenosis matches with the late-peaking murmur that decreases upon standing; mitral valve prolapse matches with the click that moves closer to S1 upon standing; aortic regurgitation matches with the diastolic murmur that increases with handgrip; and ventricular septal defect matches with the holosystolic murmur that increases with handgrip.
Each accurate match links a classic clinical presentation of a structural or valvular cardiac abnormality with its expected auscultatory findings, specifically evaluating the pathophysiological principles of how dynamic maneuvers alter cardiac hemodynamics and murmur intensity.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the first vignette to identify the underlying pathology and murmur behavior.
The athlete with exertional syncope has hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM), which produces a systolic murmur that increases with decreased preload (Valsalva).
Decreased preload reduces left ventricular volume, which exacerbates the dynamic outflow tract obstruction caused by the hypertrophied septum.
2
Analyze the second vignette to identify the underlying pathology and murmur behavior.
The elderly man with pulsus parvus et tardus has severe aortic stenosis, which produces a late-peaking systolic murmur that decreases upon standing.
Standing decreases preload; having less blood volume crossing the fixed stenotic aortic valve results in a softer murmur.
3
Analyze the third vignette to identify the underlying pathology and murmur behavior.
The woman with Marfan syndrome has mitral valve prolapse, matching the click and late systolic murmur that move closer to S1 upon standing.
Standing decreases left ventricular volume, causing the redundant mitral valve leaflets to prolapse earlier during systole.
4
Analyze the fourth vignette to identify the underlying pathology and murmur behavior.
The man with syphilis and bounding pulses has aortic regurgitation, matching the early diastolic murmur that increases with handgrip.
Sustained handgrip increases systemic vascular resistance (afterload), driving more blood backward across the incompetent aortic valve during diastole.
5
Analyze the fifth vignette to identify the underlying pathology and murmur behavior.
The infant with heart failure has a ventricular septal defect (VSD), matching the holosystolic murmur that increases with handgrip.
Increased afterload from handgrip raises left ventricular pressure relative to right ventricular pressure, augmenting the left-to-right shunt and the resulting murmur.

Key Concept

Identifying valvular and structural heart diseases from clinical vignettes and correlating them with characteristic murmur alterations induced by bedside hemodynamic maneuvers.
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