This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Heart sounds (ejection, aortic)

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

This is heard in early systole after the first heart sound. The sound is often best heard at the apex.

The sound is generated by the abrupt halt of the fused aortic cusps in systole when they fail to fold onto the wall of the aorta.

Possible causes include:

  • an aortic valve that does not open fully - a bicuspid aortic valve
  • aortic stenosis where there is a mobile valve. An aortic ejection sound signifies that the stenosis is at valve level. Calcification causes the ejection sound to disappear. The sound is also absent in supravalvular and subvalvular stenosis

Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation, such as a web address or phone number. This information will always be displayed when you visit this page