[Diagnosis and treatment of infantile endocardial fibroelastosis]

The diagnosis, treatment and etiology of primary infantile endocardial fibroelastosis were studied in 33 patients from 1989 to 1992. Two dimensional echocardiography with Doppler examination showed that the thickness of the endocardium obviously increased and systolic and diastolic functions of the left ventricles were abnormal. Endomyocardial biopsy proved that the endocardium and myocardium under went pathological changes. The virus probe examination of biopsy tissue showed negative results and the effectiveness of immunosuppressive therapy (total effective rate 96%) indicated that this disease is probably of autoimmune etiology. The facts led us to nominate this disease as infantile endomyocardial disease. Besides, the classification, diagnostic criteria, principles of treatment and prognosis of this disease were discussed.