HEART PATHOLOGY IN CHRONIC ALCOHOLISM

Abstract

In an autopsy material consisting of 35 alcoholics and 13 non‐alcoholic traffic casualties the heart was made the object of a thorough prospective study. The investigation of the histological sections was performed blindly. In two‐thirds of the alcoholic hearts changes were found which could not be explained by mechanisms other than chronic ethanol intoxication. The coronary arteries showed the same degree of atherosclerosis in both groups. Three alcoholics died suddenly without any alcohol in blood or urine probably from acute alcoholic cardiomyopathy. It is stressed that the combination of heart hypertrophy, subendocardial, interstitial, and perivascular fibrosis, and the presence of chronic inflammatory cells is highly indicative of alcoholic heart disease. The entity is probably more common than generally accepted.