[Familial asymmetrical septal hypertrophy with and without obstruction: clinical findings in patients with echocardiographically confirmed diagnosis (author's transl)].

Obstructive and non-obstructive asymmetrical septal hypertrophy (ASH) is a relatively common disease which has no characteristic clinical symptoms. In only 14 of 71 patients in whom the diagnosis had been confirmed echocardiographically had it been possible to make the diagnosis by clinical means alone. Most of the patients had no specific clinical symptoms (angina, dyspnoea, systolic murmur, non-specific ECG changes) indicating a cardiomyopathy. Every patient with such uncharacteristic signs should therefore be studied by echocardiography in order to exclude ASH. In 17 patients there were no clinical symptoms at all, the diagnosis being made entirely by echocardiography.