The Heart in Chronic Alcoholism

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Abstract
We have studied 97 patients in whom a history of excessive alcohol intake had been obtained prior to death. In a substantial majority of these patients, otherwise unexplained cardiac hypertrophy, intenstitial fibrosis and myofiber vacuolization were present even in the absence of clinically definable heart disease. In 15% of the 97 patients, death resulted from clinically obvious myocardial disease. In half of these patients with advanced congestive failure, pericardial effusion had been a prominent feature of the illness. Three of 4 of these patients showed evidence of a restrictive cardiomyopathy, which seemed consistent with the excessive myocardial fibrosis found at post-mortem examination.

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