We report the echocardiographic features of nine patients with Marfan syndrome. Six men and three women. Average age: twenty nine years. Sixty six per cent had aneurysmatic enlargement of the aortic root. One hundred per cent of the cases had aortic insufficiency, enlargement of the left ventricular diameter, decrease of the ejection fraction, and decrease in circunferential shortening; mitral prolapse, (in 6) and signs of high pulmonary artery pressure (in 4 cases). Hemodynamic studies performed in 46 per cent of the patients correlated well with the echocardiographic features. Autopsy performed in the patients who died, corroborated the cardiovascular abnormalities. We conclude that the use of the echocardiogram is a useful non-invasive technique for the early evaluation of the cardiovascular features in the Marfan syndrome.
