[Echocardiography diagnosis of a chronic course of myocarditis]

It is reported on the results of echocardiographic investigations at rest and under ergometric exercise in 36 patients in whom in particular on account of an insufficiency of physical ability under everyday conditions which appeared after an infection the suspicion of a myocarditis arose. While the echocardiographic findings at rest were not indicative, the parameters SVI and mVCFn proved to be significant on exertion. Obviously, a decrease of these values is a particularly sensitive indicator for the detection of a latent damage of the myocardium. Echocardiographic investigations on exertion are of importance particularly in adolescents, since, on the one hand, above all in adolescents the danger of a physical overstrain is given, and, on the other hand, the prerequisites for the performance of echocardiographic are particularly favourable also under conditions of exertion. Since the in general usual and accessible investigation methods such as X-ray examination of the thorax, ECG at rest and on exertion, which practically fail in the diagnostics of myocarditis, completely new prospects open in the application of the echocardiography on exertion.