Names of Various Triple Rhythms Heard on Cardiac Auscultation

Three heart sounds per cardiac cycle in a patient with a rapid heart rate can resemble the canter, trot, gallop of a horse.
• Gallop rhythm
• Canter rhythm
• Trot rhythm

  The gallop can be named by its timing during the cardiac cycle.

• Presystolic gallop
• Systolic gallop (preferrably classified as an ejection or non-ejection click)
• Protodiastolic gallop
• Mesodiastolic gallop
• Telediastolic gallop

  At a rapid heart rate an S3 and an S4 gallop in the same patient can be heard together as a single, or closely split loud sound known as a summation gallop.

• Complete summation gallop
• Incomplete summation gallop

  Triple rhythms can be named according to their origin.

• Auricular gallop
• Fourth heart sound
• S4 gallop
• Ventricular gallop
• Third heart sound
• S3 gallop
• Auriculo-ventricular gallop
• True gallop
• Left-sided gallop
• Right-sided gallop
• Rapid-filling gallop
• Diastolic echo
• Mitral opening snap in mitral stenosis
• Pericardial knock in constrictive pericardial disease
• Tumor plop in atrial myxoma

  Close splitting of a sound is called reduplication.

• Reduplication of first heart sound
• Reduplication of second heart sound

  Potain was the first to describe gallops on auscultation.

• Potain's murmur

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