[The importance of echocardiography for the diagnosis of cardiomyopathies in comparison to cardio-computer tomography and to complex invasive heart diagnostics].

112 patients with various forms of cardiomyopathy (typical-subaortic--hypertrophic obstructive; atypical--medioventricular--hypertrophic obstructive; hypertrophic nonobstructive; apical hypertrophic; dilatative) were subjected to echocardiographic examination of the morphological and functional state of the heart. The results were compared with the results of computer heart tomography and comprehensive invasive examination. The high diagnostic reliability of ultrasonic diagnostics has been confirmed. Invasive examination is necessary in hypertrophic nonobstructive and in dilatative cardiomyopathies. Computer heart tomography is suitable for complementing findings and for clarifying contradictory results of examination, especially in apical forms of cardiomyopathy.