[Experiences in the use of the so-called M-mode method in the clinical diagnosis of heart diseases].

Since formerly only the diastolic phase of the curve of the mitral valve was in the centre of interest for diagnosing the mitral stenosis, nowadays the systolic area is more taken into consideration, the changes of which apart from the hypertrophies of the heart walls increasingly gains significance for the diagnostics of the idiopathic hypertrophic cardiomyopathies, the floppy valve syndrome, the aneurysm of the heart wall, the atrial septum defect as well as for systolic murmurs of different genesis. The registration of the movement of the posterior wall and the septum give the possibility of determination of the volume. Thus mean values of the stroke volume, the minute volume of the heart and the cardiac index showed a conspicuously good correspondence in persons with healthy heart compared with former determinations by dye dilution technique. As formerly (dye examinations) we found significant differences between normals and values of patients with mitral stenosis in stroke volume, ejection fraction, cardiac output and cardiac index, when we used the echocardiographic technique.