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Percutaneous transluminal balloon aortic valvuloplasty was introduced in 1985 and, owing to its sometimes dramatic short-term results, it has rapidly become a useful procedure in the management of aortic stenosis in elderly subjects. The purpose of this study was to determine its clinical results at medium-term and to identify possible prognostic factors in order to improve the selection of patients suitable for this technique. Between January 1986 and December 1987, 78 patients (30 men, 48 women, aged from 60 to 93 years, mean 80 +/- 6.7 years) totalling 85 procedures were selected among 102 dilatations on the basis of a primary success without complications. Dilatation was performed by a technique similar to that described by Cribier et al. The follow-up period was 10 +/- 5.7 months (range: 1 to 27 months). The aortic valve area increased from 0.47 +/- 0.15 cm2 to 0.77 +/- 0.23 cm2, i.e. from 0.29 +/- 0.09 cm2/m2 to 0.48 +/- 0.13 cm2/m2 as regards the indexed area. The hospital mortality rate was 3.3 p. 100. At the end of the follow-up period 55 p. 100 of the patients were in NYHA class I or II; 29 p. 100 had died, 10 p. 100 had undergone a second dilatation and 13 p. 100 had had aortic valve replacement. This distribution into functional classes and major cardiac events was not significantly different in the subgroup of patients with an aortic valve area greater than 0.9 cm2 or in the subgroup of primary failure. The patients who died for cardiac reasons were older (p less than 0.01), had a lower cardiac output before and after dilatation (p less than 0.001) and a lower ejection fraction after dilatation (p less than 0.05) or even before in case of early death (p less than 0.05). Mortality and morbidity therefore were high at medium-term and unrelated to the haemodynamic effect of dilatation. On the other hand, the left ventricular systolic function was determinant, mainly because it could improve or remain stable when initially altered. These results suggest that only patients for whom aortic valve replacement is truly contra-indicated and who have a limited alteration of left ventricular function should be selected for aortic valvuloplasty.