[Histologic and microscopic study of striated skeletal muscles in primary dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies]

Striated skeletal muscle from 20 patients with primary cardiomyopathies were examined histologically by light microscopy. The average age of the patients was 51 years (range 34-71 yr). Seventeen of them (16 men, 1 woman) had dilated cardiomyopathy, 9 of which were associated with chronic alcoholism, and 3 men had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. All underwent routine peripheral muscle biopsies, without clinical or biological signs of neuromuscular involvement. Minor anomalies were observed in the dilated cardiomyopathy patients: 4 in chronic alcoholics and 1 in a diabetic patient. All 3 biopsies were normal in the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy group. Comparison of these results and those reported in the literature showed that our limited findings were not only due to the study protocol and that the histological lesions were not specific to cardiomyopathy.