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Auscultation means listening carefully to the heart sounds or murmurs through a stethoscope. The stethoscope tool consists of two parts: the bell and the diaphragm. Each part has its particular features, with the bell focusing on low-pitched sounds and detecting murmurs of aortic valve stenosis or carotid bruits, and the diaphragm focusing on high-pitched sounds that can detect valve closures or systolic clicks. During auscultation examination, the physician makes the patient lie in four different positions (shown in Figure 2.1): supine, upright, left lateral decubitus, and upright leaning forward [2]. The physician should be looking for irregular murmurs or heart sounds and identifying their location, duration, intensity, and pitch. This will all help in diagnosing heart conditions. Although irregular murmurs or heart sounds are not always linked with underlying heart conditions, they can, however, in certain conditions be an early warning of heart diseases.

Figure 2.1 Supine, left lateral decubitus, upright, and upright leaning forward positions.