when listening for heart sounds with your stethoscope there are certain locations on the patient's floor axe or chest that you want to listen to in other words you're not just putting your stethoscope and listening anywhere you choose - it's important to remember these specific locations so that you do things systematically and so you don't miss anything on physical exam to help you remember these locations we'll use the mnemonic apartment M or to be more specific apartment M number twenty to forty five its location in an apartment building but this will also help you remember areas to auscultate this mnemonic comes from the fact that there are four general areas on the chest where you want to listen to for heart sounds these are the aortic valve the pulmonic valve the tricuspid valve and finally the mitral valve the letters in the mnemonic apartment M stand for the first letter of the valves a for aortic P for pulmonic T four tricuspid and M for mitral and the apartment number twenty to forty five represents the location of the intercostal space of that respective listening area so that would be the right second intercostal space for the aortic valve the left second intercostal space for the pulmonic valve the fourth intercostal space in the lower left sternal border for the tricuspid valve and finally the fifth intercostal space at the midclavicular line for the mitral valve you