Step 1: Standing up and the Valsalva manoeuvre both reduce venous return and therefore reduce left ventricular filling (preload). Step 2: In hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) a smaller ventricular volume worsens the outflow obstruction, so the murmur gets louder on standing. Step 3: So option (a) HOCM is correct. Step 4: In contrast, mitral regurgitation (MR), mitral stenosis (MS) and ventricular septal defect (VSD) murmurs typically get softer when preload falls, because reduced filling and flow lessen the regurgitant or shunt sound, which is why they are not the answer.