Interrater and intrarater agreement on heart murmurs.
Stian AndersenAnne Herefoss DavidsenHenrik SchirmerHasse MelbyeMark SpigtJuan Carlos Aviles-SolisPublished in: Scandinavian journal of primary health care (2023)
We observed fair but variable agreement with a reference on heart murmurs, and physician experience and specialty, as well as murmur intensity, were the factors most strongly associated with agreement.Key points:Heart auscultation is the main physical examination of the heart, but we lack knowledge of inter- and intrarater agreement on heart sounds.• Physicians identified heart murmurs from heart sound recordings fairly reliably compared with a reference classification, and with fair intrarater agreement.• Both intrarater agreement and agreement with the reference showed considerable variation between doctors• Murmur intensity, more than five years in clinical practice, and cardiology specialty were most strongly linked to agreement with the reference.