Simply to read about heart sounds and try to form a mental image of sound from a verbal description is, for the novice, a frustrating experience. Phonocardiograms help, particularly to portray matters of timing. But nothing can match persevering bedside experience with a capable, articulate, and patient teacher.
For the person who wishes to study cardiac auscultation on his own, Segal and Likoff have prepared a concise guide. Their text is coordinated with recordings available in high-fidelity 33 1/3 rpm longplaying discs and also on tapes at 3 3/4 and 7 1/2 inches per second. The authors concern themselves with more than merely heart sounds and murmurs, for examination of the precordium, the venous and the arterial pulses are also covered. The authors examine current theories of the genesis and transmission of heart sounds and murmurs in the light of evidence culled from a sound bibliography, and they adduce additional