[Echocardiographic aspects of supravalvular aortic stenosis (author's transl)].

Seven patients with hemodynamic and angiocardiographic diagnosis of supravalvular aortic stenosis were studied by single plane echocardiography. 3 patients had the hypoplastic and 3 the "hourglass" type of the disease. 3 patients underwent surgical repair of the malformation, with postoperative echocardiographic control. There was no relationship between the lumen dimension variations as measured by echocardiography and the transtenotic pressure gradient. With respect to angiocardiography, echocardiography underestimates the severity of the disease. The method was always diagnostic, but the anatomic type of stenosis could not be determined. The severity of the disease can be only indirectly assessed by evaluating left ventricular hypertrophy induced by pressure overload.