[Characteristics of the echocardiographic changes in patients with myocardial infarction complicated by heart rupture].

Echocardiographic examination was conducted in 40 patients with acute myocardial infarction, in five cases the course of myocardial infarction was complicated by cardiorhexis. The echocardiograms of patients who died of cardiorrhexis showed marked hyperkinesia in the area of the posterior wall of the left ventricle (in 3 of the 4 cases of anterior myocardial infarction). In the control group compensatory hyperkinesia in the area of the posterior wall of the left ventricle was detected only in 21% of the patients. Moreover, the echocardiograms of those patients who died of cardiorrhexis showed dys- and akinesia in the focus of the affection, 80% of these patients exhibited an enlargement of the right ventricle as compared to 40% of the controls. The parameters of the central hemodynamics in the patients with hyperkinesia who died of cardiorrhexis indicated compensation of the cardiac activity although all patients had marked zones of dys- and akinesia. In the control group they were significantly reduced and pointed to impaired myocardial contractility.