[The value of echocardiography in the diagnosis of cardiac diseases].

Single beam echocardiography is now an established diagnostic tool in non-invasive cardiology. The principle indications are valvular diseases, pericardial effusion, aneurysm of the ascending aorta, and congenital heart disease. In the absence of regional contraction disorders, left ventricular function can be assessed by the extent of systolic shortening of the left ventricular diameter. More recently, two-dimensional echocardiography has made a very significant contribution to anatomical and functional evaluation of the heart and the great vessels, since the cardiac structures can be visualized in various cross-sections. This technique is especially helpful for the assessment of left ventricular regional contraction disturbances, the diagnosis of dysfunction of artificial valves and bioprotheses, the detection of dissecting aneurysm, and the estimation of mitral valve area in mitral stenosis. Since various left ventricular axes can be determined, the quantitation of left heart volumes appears to be within the capability of the two-dimensional technique.