Author: Ernan

Cardiac auscultation is a skill that takes practice. Lots of practice. We’ve developed a handy educational poster to use as a reference when listening for subtle heart sounds with your Littmann® Stethoscope.

You’ll find a diagram of the heart with key auscultation sites indicated. Visualization of the aortic, pulmonic, tricuspid and mitral areas clarify where to place your stethoscope during a clinical examination to listen to heart sounds. There’s also a detailed description of the heart cycle that will help you review the basics of cardiac auscultation.

Auscultation is the medical term for using a stethoscope to listen to the sounds inside of your body. This simple test poses no risks or side effects. Why is auscultation used? Abnormal sounds may indicate problems.

Learning how to accurately perform a cardiac auscultation — the action of listening to the heart with a stethoscope — is an important skill for medical students, as this procedure can help in the diagnosis of a number of major heart problems. A cardiac auscultation needs to be performed precisely, otherwise the results will not be accurate. Therefore, it’s important to take your time with it and perform each step with confidence and precision

Pulmonary auscultation requires careful attention to both lungs, and comparison of equivalent positions on each side of the chest to identify asymmetry of breath and lung sounds. Our poster shows you the correct places on the chest — the trachea, zones, and axillas — to place your Littmann® Stethoscope when practicing this important skill.