Echocardiography in ischemic heart disease.

Echocardiographic findings in patients with ischemic heart disease are described; their correlations with clinical, hemodynamic and angiographic data are presented and discussed. Regional abnormalities of left ventricular wall motion and/or thickening during systole are detected in 84 per cent of patients with acute myocardial infarction and in a high percentage of patients with larger than or equal to 75 per cent narrowing of a major coronary artery. These abnormalities may occur with stress and may be reversible. Left ventricular wall thinning during systole indicates acute ischemia or infarction and thin, dense myocardial echoes indicate scar. Echocardiographic evidence of left ventricular dysfunction is useful in predicting heart failure and mortality in patients with acute myocardial infarction and in predicting surgical mortality for patients undergoing aneurysmectomy and/or coronary artery bypass surgery. Echocardiography has not proved useful in determining graft patency following coronary artery bypass surgery. Technical difficulties and limitations of echocardiography in patients with coronary artery disease are discussed.