Clinical and Phonocardiographic Observations on the Flint Murmur

Abstract

IT is an established clinical observation that certain patients with aortic regurgitation have an apical presystolic murmur without mitral stenosis demonstrable at autopsy. This phenomenon was originally described ninety years ago by the American physican, Austin Flint,¹ who made his first observations in New Orleans. From the original report in 1862 it is difficult to determine whether Flint was describing a murmur in mid-diastole or in presystole. This was due to the terminology used in his time for describing cardiac murmurs. However, there is little doubt from a later report (1886)² that he was describing a murmur in presystole. This . . .