[Echocardiographic studies in congestive cardiomyopathies]

Twenty-seven patients with congestive cardiomyopathy and 34 patients with coronary heart disease (postinfarction cardiosclerosis) as well as 30 healthy subjects were studied using one- and two-dimensional echocardiography with a subsequent computerized analysis. Patients with congestive cardiomyopathy showed an increased end-diastolic size, mitral-septal separation, right ventricular and left atrial diameters and left ventricular mass as compared to the other groups. Unlike in coronary heart disease, patients with congestive cardiomyopathy had a decreased mitral ring area, a prolonged isovolumetric relaxation phase, a decreased increment of the anteroposterior diameter during rapid filling.