[Subaortic stenosis in ankylosing spondylitis: a new hypothesis of cardiac involvement]

Ankylosing spondylitis is a chronic inflammatory rheumatism with associated heart involvement, fundamentally circumscribed to the aortic root area. Of these anomalies, the fibrous proliferation of the supra and sub-valvular tissue appears to be pathognomonic. We present two cases of ankylosing spondylitis studied by means of bidimensional echocardiography. The study showed a fixed sub-aortic stenosis, without alterations of the mitral or aortic valves. In our opinion, the aortic subvalvular membrane, could constitute the initial alteration of the valvular affection of ankylosing spondylitis.