[Cardiac manifestations of scleroderma. Prospective study of thirty cases (author's transl)].

: A prospective study was conducted to evaluate cardiac effects of scleroderma by means of phonomyography (30 patients) and ultrasound cardiography (18 patients). Clinically silent effusions can be detected by ultrasound cardiography, and 50 p. cent of the patients were found to have pericarditis through this investigative technique. Valvular lesions (mitral prolapsus) were present in a more important number than simply a coincidence. Measurement of myocardial relaxation appears to give the best indication of the specific myocardial lesion in this disease, and even may be of some prognostic value.