[Vectorcardiographic contribution to the differential semeiology of cardiomyopathies (author's transl)].

The electro-vectorcardiographic findings of 59 patients with idiopathic cardiomyopathies, divided by means of hemodynamic and angiographic study into dilated (38 cases), hypertrophic obstructive (10 cases) and hypertrophic non obstructive (11 cases), were compared with those of a control group of 17 patients with left ventricular hypertrophy of known etiology. The statistical vectorial analysis of the 4 groups, excluding the patients with intraventricular conduction disturbances and patients below 10 years of age (46 cases), showed low voltage of the first vectors, especially at 0,01 sec., in the obstructive compared with the non obstructive type. On the basis of the data from the literature on histological findings in cardiomyopathies, these differences can be interpreted as due to a different myofibrillar arrangement in the free wall of the left ventricle.