PURPOSE--To study the relationship between symptoms and left ventricular function in 68 patients with severe chronic aortic regurgitation using echocardiogram and radionuclide left ventriculography at rest. METHODS--Three stages of natural history are assumed: the 1st, at the beginning of the study, when all patients were asymptomatic (clinical stage 0); the 2nd, at the end of 36 month persistence of asymptomatic (clinical stage 1), consisting of 45 patients (group AA); the 3rd, on occasion of manifestation of the symptoms during this period of time (clinical stage 2), consisting of 21 patients (group AS-PRE), with two fatalities not related to valvopathy. RESULTS--The comparison between the groups resulted in similarities in the mean ages, mean time of knowledge of the disease, predominance of males and rheumatic etiology. The profile analysis showed that the significant initial differences between the average of all echocardiographic variables (diastolic diameter, systolic diameter, shortening fraction, final systolic stress, volume-mass ratio, contractility index) and of the ejection fraction of the left ventricle obtained by the radionuclide ventriculography at rest, remained during the study. CONCLUSION--Development of symptoms grouped patients with more advanced excentric hypertrophy, did not coincide with any immediate change in the laboratory markers studied at rest and it was used as a referential for surgical therapy.