Unique Cardiac Sound App for iPhone

Cardiac sounds.... as I've said before... not my strong suit... so I have been on the hunt for some great iPhone apps to help me pass the time and learn a bit in the process. After all, you can't become good at murmur auscultation by reading a book. I was recently introduced to the Blaufuss Sound Builder. This app is has some great features. I found myself playing with it for hours (rather than studying!).

1. It allows you to listen to a murmur on a patient and then listen to the app and customize the app's sounds to match that of the patient's. Not sure if it is systolic or diastolic? Click on each and then ask yourself which one sounds like your patient. As advertised, you can "You can also compare/contrast sounds that are easily confused: holosystolic vs mid systolic, murmurs, and extra sounds near the 1st and 2nd heart sounds."

2. As I show in the screen shots below, once you find the combo of heart sounds that you are looking for you can hit Dx for the predicted diagnosis or a differential list (super helpful)!

3. If you need some extra information... you can select the side arrow in blue and more information is available (screen shot below).

4. The initial download of the app is free - but you get only a few of the sounds included. For full use of the application it is $9.99 - but honestly worth it. I've downloaded and tried 10-15 heart sound apps and ended up deleting them 2 days later because they weren't very helpful. This is definitely a keeper. 

You can select any combination of heart sounds to hear together. By adding them 1 at a time I found it MUCH easier to pick them out.

You can see how the "Early diastolic" tab is selected because it is yellow. Then select the blue Dx circle  to  get the differential diagnosis list.

The differential list of Early systolic murmurs. (There is more if you scroll.)

More information on Aortic Regurgitation 

Disclaimer: I received this app for free as a tester, but do not receive any compensation for future purchases.