MYXEDEMA HEART

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Abstract
Recent spectacular surgical therapy in certain cases of heart failure due to congenital anomalies and rheumatic valvular deformities seems to have overshadowed the fact that medical treatment also can produce dramatic improvement in cardiac decompensation from some types of heart disease. Among these, cardiac impairment resulting from thyroid deficiency can apparently be completely corrected. This is not true of the great majority of cases of heart disease, whether medical, surgical, or combined methods of treatment are used. The fact that myxedema in humans can cause diffuse cardiac enlargement, sluggish contractions, and electrocardiographic abnormalities that disappear only after the myxedema is controlled was recorded by Zondek in 1918. Fahr's investigations in this country in 1925 confirmed Zondek's observations and showed that cardiac volume in cases of severe myxedema may be increased 100%. Lerman, Clark, and Means in 1933 showed reduction in the transverse cardiac diameters in 37 out of 48 cases