[Study of the left coronary trunk by 2-dimensional echocardiography in ischemic cardiopathy].

The study of the left main coronary artery (LMCA) obstruction is very important in view of the risk that it represents for coronarography, the high mortality that it has and its indication of early surgical treatment. For these reasons we studied LMCA obstruction by two-dimensional echocardiography (2-D Echo). The study was blind, prospective and included of 50 unselected patients with coronary artery disease proved by coronarography. The LMCA obstruction was recognized in 5 patients (10%) by 2-D Echo, in two of them it was seen as non-obstructive atheroma and in 3 as a significant obstruction. This LMCA correlated with angiographic findings. We had not false negatives. The patients with LMCA obstruction had higher frequency of positive treadmill test and anteroseptal myocardial infarction. Three patients had bypass surgery with good results. Two had not surgery, one of them died and the other one has angina and heart failure. The 2-D Echo is a useful procedure in the study of LMCA obstruction.