Echocardiographic study of Marfan’s syndrome

Based on an echocardiographic study of a series of 52 patients with Marian’s syndrome, we found that the echocardiographic characteristic of Marfan’s syndrome was marked dilatation of aortic root with or without mitral valve prolapse. 48 cases (92.3%) in this series were found to have aortic root enlargement, 11 of which were associated with mitral valve prolapse. This finding suggested that marked dilatation of aortic root should be an important diagnostic picture of Marfan’s syndrome. Echocardiogram enhanced significantly the detection rate of cardiovascular defects, so it is helpful in observation of outstanding family tendency toward involvement of different organ-systems in different families in Marfan’s syndrome.