The precordial honk

Seven patients with a loud, intermittent, precordial sound have been described. The quality of the sound suggested the honking noise of a goose, and we have elected to call it the “precordial honk.” This sound may well be the same sound that McKusick5 and Levine and Harvey11 have called a “systolic whoop.” The patients had extensive cardiac evaluations which included complete right and left heart catheterizations with cineangiocardiography. The clinical and cardiac catheterization findings are presented, and the various mechanisms for the production of the “precordial honk” are discussed.