Atherosclerotic heart defects

Clinical, echocardiographic, Doppler echocardiographic, electro- and phonocardiographic studies were performed in 31 patients with cardiac atherosclerotic lesions (aortic in 17 patients, aortomitral in 10, mitral in 4) and in 20 patients matched for age, sex, and underlying abnormality, but without cardiac disease. Atherosclerotic defects caused by calcification of the valvular apparatus were shown to be rarely (5.9% of patients) isolated, they were more frequently combined or concurrent. Atherosclerotic defects caused no significant myocardial structural and functional changes in addition to the underlying pathology. Aortic atherosclerotic stenosis is diagnosed at equal rates by using echo and phonocardiography, whereas aortic valvular insufficiency and mitral diseases are better (7- and 9-fold) detected with echocardiography and Doppler echocardiography, whereas aortic valvular insufficiency and mitral diseases are better (7- and 9-fold) detected with echocardiography and Doppler echocardiography than with phonocardiography.