In each part of this question, list clinical examination findings for each of the two underlined conditions that would help you to distinguish between them:
Aortic regurgitation
Mitral stenosis
This question comes straight from Talley and O'Connor.
Specifically, the part of Chapter 3 (The Cardiovascular System) titled "Correlation of physical signs and cardiovascular disease". The sections dealing with aortic regurgitation and mitral stenosis make several statements to distinguish the two murmurs.
Unfortunately, its not as though there is a summary of it anywhere, nor is there any sort of table with the features of the various murmurs, which one might use as a quick reference. In fact the college answer is the closest thing to a summary of this issue.
Fortunately, before all these new-fangled gadgets came about, there were real physicians, who knew how to auscultate a praecordium. I have an 1958 article which contains precisely this sort of table, comparing the two murmurs according to their features. Together with the UpToDate page on heart sounds, this table has formed the basis of my "model answer". For more details, one may refer to the Circulation Research article by Sabbah et al (1976). In Aubrey Leatham's 1954 article for the Lancet, one may also find various causes of split heart sounds. Another important reference is Walker's Clinical Methods, in which Crowley's Chapter 27 is dedicated entirely to diastolic mumurs.
| Feature | Aortic regurgitation | Mitral stenosis |
| Rhythm | usually sinus | usually AF |
| First heart sound | Normal S1 | Loud S1 |
| Second heart sound | Soft S2 (A2) | Normal S2 (M2) |
| Additional sounds | Third heart sound (S3) | Opening snap |
| Pulse quality | Collapsing pulse | Small pulse pressure |
| Where is it loudest | 3rd intercostal space, parasternally | Apex |
| When is it loudest | Sitting forward, during expiration | In a left lateral position |
| Pitch, quality | Decrescendo | low-pitched, rumbing |
| Associated findings |
Signs of LV failure, displaced apex beat |
"Malar flush" |
| Coexisting disease | Infective endocarditis, ankylosing spondylitis, other seronegative arthropathies, Marfans. | Pulmonary hypertension |
In case anybody is interested, here are the eponymous signs of aortic regurgitation which were mentioned by the college. If any of you young people are wondering why you (probably) have never heard of these, it is because they are almost completely useless.
Corrigans sign: a "jerky" carotid pulse: full expansion, followed by complete collapse. You're palpating the pressure of the left ventricle, essentially. It's named after a 19th century Irishman. It indicates a severe aortic incompetence.
de Musset's sign which the college answer has spelled incorrectly is a visible nodding of the head in time with arterial pulsation in patients with severe aortic insufficiency. It is named after an aortically insufficient French poet.
Quincke's sign, otherwise known as Quincke's pulse, is a nail sign: it is seen when the nailbed is blanched. The pale nail bed flashed red and white as capillary refill is restored. It can also be seen in the absence of any aortic problems, in patients who have sclerodactily.
Duroziez's sign is elicited by listening over the femoral artery with the bell of the stethoscope. It is supposed to be a double murmur. According to some recent evidence, it has almost 100% specificity. There is supposed to be both a systolic and a diastolic bruit, as blood rushes into - and then rapidly out of - the femoral artery.
Nicholas Joseph Talley, Simon O'Connor; Clinical Examination: A Systematic Guide to Physical Diagnosis (7th ed)
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Leatham, Aubrey. "Splitting of the first and second heart sounds." The Lancet 264.6839 (1954): 607-614.
Sabbah, HANI N., and PAUL D. Stein. "Investigation of the theory and mechanism of the origin of the second heart sound." Circulation research 39.6 (1976): 874-882.
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