Alcoholic Heart Disease

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Fifty patients with evidence of myocardial disease and a long-standing high consumption of alcohol were seen over a 10-year period. The usual causes of myocardial disease were excluded as far as possible. All but one were male in the fourth to eighth decades. Three clinical syndromes which depend on the dominant derangement of circulatory function at any one time were recognized. Cardiac beriberi (aneurin-responsive disease) was the least frequent and least serious disorder. A larger group of patients presented with arrhythmia[long dash]especially atrial fibrillation[long dash]with or without varying degrees of heart failure. A 3rd group of patients presented with hypokinetic heart failure, cardiomegaly, and electrocardiographic evidence of severe myo-cardial disease. It is concluded that the association of high alcohol consumption for a long time and myocardial disease, manifest by arrhythmias and heart failure, is not fortuitour but causal. However, there is no evidence on the pathogenesis of the process nor on the nature of individual susceptibility.