Pre- and postoperative findings in patients with endomyocardial fibrosis.

From 1971 to 1977 endomyocardial fibrosis was diagnosed in 7 patients (6 women and 1 man) and the clinical course was followed for 36 months. Five of the 7 patients (70%) showed partial obliteration of both ventricles; in 2 patients the fibrotic lesions were confined to the left ventricle. The main haemodynamic features were restriction to ventricular filling and atrioventricular valve regurgitation. Angiocardiographically there was a small left ventricular (LV) cavity with globular configuration and a right ventricular cavity with obliteration of the corpus and small additional cavities in the apical region. LV ejection fraction ranged from 48 to 73 per cent. Endocardial thickening of the posterior wall was found in 4 of 6 echocardiographically evaluated patients, and thickening of the right ventricular anterior wall with systolic obliteration of the cavity was detected by echocardiography in 2 patients in whom angiocardiography had shown severe fibrosis of the right ventricle.