[Predicting heart failure by intravital study of the mitochondrial energy function in patients with heart defects]

The mitochondrial energy system (respiration and oxidative phosphorylation) was studied in 144 patients by a lifetime method for polarographic recording of respiration of tissue sections in myocardial biopsy specimens. The application of new biochemical criteria for assessing the energy system of mitochondria increases the accuracy of diagnosis of latent heart failures in the presence of cardiac malformations.