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[Alcohol and idiopathic dilatated cardiomyopathy: a pathogenetic hypothesis]
R Ricciardi1, B Ferlazzo, A Crisafi
1Istituto di Patologia Medica e Medicina Mediterranea, Università di Messina.
Rivista Europea Per Le Scienze Mediche E Farmacologiche = European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences = Revue Europeenne Pour Les Sciences Medicales Et Pharmacologiques
|February 1, 1991
Abstract:
In a group of 120 chronic alcoholics, we observed two cases of severe dilated cardiomyopathy, fatal within a year, similar to the so called "idiopathic" form, among cases of cardiovascular involvement related to alcohol abuse (63.5%) but susceptible of improvement following abstention. On the basis of their observation we believe that alcohol itself, as has already been demonstrated for certain viruses, in the presence of particular genetic factors can cause the onset of an immune reaction able to impart an autonomous course which cannot be checked even after abstention from alcohol.