Summary:The response to isoproterenol was studied in 9 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and asymmetric septal hypertrophy (ASH), 9 patients with HCM and symmetric hypertrophy (SH), and 9 normal controls (NC), using digitized M-mode echocardiography. There was no significant difference in fractional shortening (FS) between ASH and SH, nor between SH and NC before isoproterenol infusion. During isoproterenol infusion, however, FS was significantly greater in ASH (60f6%) than in SH (53f7%) and NC (49f5%) (p