[Visualization of the false tendon in the left ventricle with echocardiography and its clinical significance (author's transl)].

Echocardiographic features of the false tendon in th left ventricle and its clinical significance were reported. The subjects consisted of 132 consecutive patients, in whom the left ventricle was satisfactorily examined from various aspects with two-dimensional echocardiography. In general, the false tendon was detected in the long axis view of the left ventricle from the apical approach. It was detected in 61 of 132 consecutive patients with echocardiography. The incidence did not seem to be related to the kinds of underlying conditions. The false tendon was usually a string, a few millimeters in width, crossing the ventricular cavity from the vicinity of the papillary muscles to the interventricular septum. In a few patients it looked as Y-figure and net like. Sometimes, several sticks of the false tendon were detected. It was observed to be stretched in diastole and relaxed in systole. On the M-mode echocardiogram the false tendon was displayed as a linear echo moving with heart beat. The false tendon revealed near the interventricular septum, exhibited a motion so similar to that of the interventricular septum that it should be carefully differentiated from the echo of the left ventricular surface of the septum. In 2 patients of valvular heart disease, it was observed to be fluttered in diastole. Echocardiography was more useful in detecting the false tendon than left ventriculography.