[Changes of systolic time in dystrophia myotonica]

The left ventricular ejection time was studied by the external phonomechanocardiographic method on 17 patients affected by myotonic dystrophy (Steinert's disease), including 9 men and 8 women; aged from 25 to 68 years, with an average course for the neurological disease of 18.7 years. The case studied were those which demonstrated no signs of cardiac failure or of any disease liable to involve the heart. The results were compared on the one hand with the normal figures according to Blumberger, to Holldack and to Nazzi, Ricco and Meda, and on the other hand with the theoretical values computed, according to the regression equations of Weissler, Harris and Schoenfeld. The changes of systolic time intervals mechanical systole of the left ventricle. There was a narrow relationship between the length of the course of the neurological disease and the incidence of heart involvement, which seemed to be constant.