[Specificity of the morphological signs of alcoholic cardiomyopathy]

The morphological signs of alcoholic cardiomyopathy (ACMP) found on examination of over 500 autopsies for sudden death were compared with those in rats with experimental cardiomyopathy. It was established that they were completely identical. Each of the alterations found was non-specific. However, the fact that the same alterations always combined allowed the conclusion to be made about the existence of a complex of alterations characteristic of ACMP. The given differential-diagnostic complex formed the basis of the morphological diagnosis of ACMP in 2 groups of patients. Group I included patients suffering from chronic alcoholism, stages II-III, with a clinical diagnosis of ACMP, group II patients consisted of patients with a clinical diagnosis of congestive cardiomyopathy. In the latter group, the morphological signs of ACMP were recognized in 6 out of 14 cases. The failure to demonstrate the morphological signs of ACMP in all the patients confirms the hypothesis that ACMP cannot be caused by long-term alcohol abuse alone. It is probable that a definite predisposition to the disease, which is likely to be of genetic character, may play the leading part in the disease development.