Ruptured chordae tendineae in acromegaly. An autopsy case

A 57-year-old woman with acromegaly associated with mitral chordal rupture is reported. She was noted to have abnormal development in the size of her hands and feet in childhood. She occasionally suffered from shortness of breath on exertion and nocturnal dyspnea for several years, and was diagnosed and treated as having congestive heart failure due to valvular heart disease. On admission to our hospital, chordal rupture was suspected on the basis of M-mode and two-dimensional echocardiography. Seven years after discharge, she died of congestive heart failure. On autopsy, the heart weight and ventricular wall thickness were increased. Rupture of the posterior chordae was confirmed, but evidence of an old myocardial infarction was not found. There was severe interstitial fibrosis in the left ventricular wall. A possible etiology of the chordal rupture in this case was thought to be the excessive stretching caused by the disproportional visceromegaly of the heart.