INTRACARDIAC THROMBOSIS AND EMBOLISM IN ENDOMYOCARDIAL FIBROSIS IN UGANDA

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Abstract
This communication records the incidence and distribution of intracardiac thrombi and of embolic phenomena in endomyocardial fibrosis in Uganda, and discusses the role of thrombus formation and organization in the pathogenesis of endomyocardial fibrosis and other cardiopathies. It is not an attempt to define the relation between the various obscure forms of heart disease seen in Africa and elsewhere. Whatever the ultimate nature of or relation between these various disorders, cardiac thrombi clearly play an important role in producing the typical fully-developed picture of endomyocardial fibrosis, but we consider that myocardial failure per se is not sufficient to account for the initiation of the condition. From the observations made during this study we think that in endomyocardial firbosis as seen in Kampala, Uganda, there appear to be localizing endocardial or subendocardial factors that determine the formation of intracardiac thrombosis.