[Possibilities of the use of echocardiography in epidemiologic examinations].

The obtained experience of echocardiography use in wide population examinations demonstrate that it is of practical value for diagnosis of lesions of heart valves or other heart structures (about 10% of pathology in grown-up population). The efficacy of the method could be highly increased (from 37% to 81%) if the investigation was performed in patients with murmurs above the heart area, with cardiovascular diseases in anamnesis and with marked ECG alterations. Children and adolescents exhibited mainly various types of mitral valve prolapse.