Let us begin auscultation at the upper left sternal edge using the diaphragm of the stethoscope with firm pressure and watching respiration. [cut-away]
And what did we hear listening at the upper left sternal edge? Well, that’s the area you often best hear splitting of the second heart sounds, and that’s what we heard. Normal splitting of the second heart sounds of about four hundredths of a second. Every time the patient breathed in we heard [sounds], breathed out [sounds]. In the context of the patient that we are evaluating, we would anticipate that the second sounds would be normal both in splitting and in intensity.