A series of randomly collected human hearts, removed at autopsy from decedents known to be chronic alcoholics, were examined macroscopically and morphometrically using standard histological techniques. An accurate computer assisted semi-automatic method was used for these measurements. Control hearts were collected and examined in a similar manner. It was shown that in chronic alcoholics there are cardiac myocytic changes which eventually result in enlargement of these cells and may lead to cardiac enlargement and dysfunction. A significant degree of interstitial fibrosis was also noted within the myocardium but no vascular abnormalities were noted particularly in the micro circulation. The incidence of chronic alcoholism is on the increase world-wide and sudden death related to cardiac problems in chronic abuse of alcohol is a well known syndrome, whose pathogenesis has been poorly established in clinical and animal studies. Within the limitations of the material available for this study, this work enables a clearer insight into the potential relationships between alcohol and the cardiac myocyte and into pathogenetic mechanisms of alcohol-related cardiac problems.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:640237 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Ahmed, A. N. Hussain |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/20486 |
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