[Ultrastructure of the myocardium in experimental autoimmune cardiomyopathy]

The myocardium of 20 rats with an experimentally caused autoimmune form of cardiomyopathy was studied by the electron-microscopy method. It was established that lesions of the ultrastructure of the myocardium in this pathology were of a mosaic character. There was a clear-cut difference between the areas of complete destruction of myocytes and the zones of hypertrophy of the myocardium. These were divided into areas with complete hypertrophy of the myocardium and those with incompetent hypertrophy of muscular cells, which, in its turn, depended upon local conditions, in particular, on localization of a great number of collagenous fibres in the interstitial space.