Septal perforator compression (narrowing) in idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis.

Thirteen patients with idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis were compared with two groups of subjects: 10 patients with chest pain, normal coronary arteries and a normal left ventricle, and 10 patients with left ventricular hypertrophy. Five of the latter had aortic stenosis and five had idiopathic left ventricular hypertrophy. Coronary arteriography revealed that the septal branches of the left anterior descending artery closed or narrowed during systole in patients with idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis and did not do so in the other patient groups. This narrowing is possibly related to an abnormal position of the septal arteries within the septum in idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis. Systolic compression of the septal perforator arteries is not a pathognomonic sign of idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis.