Chronic alcoholic cardiomyopathy: fact or fiction?

This study was designed to ascertain whether excessive prolonged alcohol intake itself may produce chronic cardiomyopathy. We reasoned that, since alcoholic cardiomyopathy is allegedly a chronic condition, asymptomatic or early symptomatic cases should be found in a large hospitalized alcoholic population. Two groups of patients were studied. The first group consisted of 292 chronic alcoholics whose hospital records were examined for evidence of early cardiomyopathy, according to predetermined criteria. The second group consisted of eight patients who died on the medical service ward and in whom one of the diagnoses listed in the autopsy report was alcoholic cardiomyopathy. In the first group hepatic and neurological complications of alcoholism were frequent; no patient was found to have early cardiomyopathy. In the second group the post-mortem records indicated that all eight patients had other illnesses causing the abnormal findings on which the diagnosis of alcoholic cardiomyopathy was made. We conclude that the concept of chronic alcoholic cardiomyopathy caused by the direct toxic effect of alcohol may not be valid.