[Echocardiography in assessing myocardial function in influenza]

A study was made of the echocardiographic signs of heart lesion in 23 influenza patients in the acute disease period and in 19 of them, during early convalescence. Echocardiography permits detecting alterations in cases where clinically or with the aid of the ECG, the diagnosis of myocardial lesions could not be established. Moderate enlargement of the right ventricular cavity in the main, appearance of local hyperkinesia of the myocardium, changes in the central hemodynamics with a tendency towards the hyperkinetic type turned out to be the most frequently occurring alterations. During early convalescence, these alterations do not undergo complete normalization.