[TM-mode echocardiography in the evaluation of ventricular function in convalescent patients after recent infarction....

133 patients (50 +/- 11 years), under observation at 1 to 2 months after the acute episode (38 +/- 10 days) and in the absence of medical treatment in most cases (90%), underwent the same day a maximal cycloergometric test, limited to symptoms of clinostatism with hemodynamic monitoring (Swan-Ganz 7F for pressure and thermodilution), and a good quality echocardiogram in TM mode (semi-automatic reading) in order to identify every valvular lesion. The ECHO-TM parameters of the left ventricular function (LV) taken into consideration (circumferential velocity of shortening of LV : CVSLV, percentage of systolic shortening of LV, telediastolic dimension of LV,E-septum distance, PR-AC, relation between the intervals Q-mitral block and aortic block-mitral point E,QC/A2E, left auricular dimension and mitral point B) have shown a low correlation (0.31) with the telediastolic pulmonary arterial pressure (TDPAP) at rest and after effort. The ECHO-TM parameters have not demonstrated significant differences when the patients are grouped according to the locus of the infarction (76 inferior, 50 anterior and 7 antero-inferior) and age (36 younger than 45 years, 87 aged between 45 and 64 years and 10 older than 64 years), whereas significant differences were found on segregating the patients according to the value of the last level at a threshold of 75 watts (44 patients did not attain 75 watts and 89 exceeded it).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)