what is meant by a diamond-shaped murmur?

[GingerSue]

What is meant by a murmur pattern that is "diamond-shaped?"

Thanks

[begalli]

This is very hard to describe, but it has to do with the "shape" of the murmur when it's graphed visually - kind of like what a heartbeat looks like in an ekg except here you're graphing electrical activity and with a murmur you're graphic sound. It's what the sound of the murmur "looks" like. A lot of times a diamond shape is what mitral regurg (i think) looks like. It has crescendo and decrescendo = diamond shaped.

[GingerSue]

Thanks - you could be right. I was a bit unsure of the explanation given in the textbook - it says the pattern of intensity of a murmur can be crescendo, decrescendo, or crescendo-decrescendo, or diamond shaped. So I thought it meant that diamond shape was different from crescendo-descresendo - but it could just be the way the sentence is put together. I think you're right!