[Hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy with extensive myocardial fibrosis: case report with autopsy]

An autopsy case of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy with extensive myocardial fibrosis is reported in a 43-year-old male. His mother died suddenly at 55. At the age of 39 the patient felt fatigue and feverish sensation followed by dyspnea and palpitation on exertion. He responded to beta-blocker and was discharged on the 51st hospital day. He died suddenly during his work three years and one month after discharge. The heart weighs 700 g. The thickness of the ventricular septum measures up to 3.2 cm, and that of the left ventricular posterior wall 2.2 cm. Subaortic endocardium is moderately thickened. Many patchy fibroses of various sizes and broad linear fibroses are mainly observed in the ventricular septum and in the left ventricular free wall. Microscopic examination shows severe fascicular disarray of hypertrophied myocardial fibers in the ventricular septum and in a part of the left ventricular anterior wall. Pericardial fibrosis, granulation tissue with many capillaries, and slight lymphocytic infiltrate are also noted. These findings suggest that the patient have both congenital hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and myocarditis. There are following possibilities as regards the relation between the two: first, haphazard association of cardiomyopathy with myocarditis; secondly, myocarditis triggered the onset or progression, or both, of cardiomyopathy. He also had liver cirrhosis, probably alcoholic, which appears to accelerate the progression of myocardial disarray and fibrosis.