Twenty-five patients with chronic ischaemic heart disease and intact left ventricular systolic function who had no other cardiovascular, systemic or metabolic diseases were examined by two-dimensional and Doppler echocardiography. At rest and during an isometric load Doppler parameters of left ventricular diastolic filling were obtained such as: peak transmitral flow velocity in early diastole - E, peak transmitral flow velocity in atrial contraction - A, their ratio E/A and deceleration time of early filling. Based on the coronarographic finding, the patients were divided in two ways: 1. group A - 15 patients with critical narrowing of some major coronary artery (stenosis > or = 90% of the luminal diameter) and group B - 10 patients without critical narrowing (stenosis > or = 50%, but less than 90% of the luminal diameter), 2 group C - 6 patients with triple vessel disease, group D - 8 patients with double vessel disease and group E - 11 patients with single vessel disease. None of the groups differed mutually in any of the investigated Doppler parameters of left ventricular filling at rest, nor after an isometric load.

CONCLUSION: Diastolic Doppler parameters of left ventricular filling do not make it possible to detect patients with critical coronary narrowing and they do not help to estimate the number of coronary vessels with significant stenoses.

Keywords: Blood Flow Velocity; Coronary Disease /diagnostic imaging/; Echocardiography, Doppler; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Mitral Valve /diagnostic imaging/; Reference Values; Ventricular Function, Left