[Clinical observations on alcoholic cardiomyopathy]

The Authors have followed several cases of alcoholic patients and studied their cardiocirculatory conditions, pointing out the fundamental differences between the Anglo-saxon alcoholic described by Evans and the Mediterranean patient observed and studied in our hospitals. Tachycardia, in a subject that presents, at first, a heart of normal dimension, is an element commonly observed. In the course of time electrocardiographic alterations may appear in the ventricular repolarization and therefore an expansion of the cardiac area and insufficient pumping. It is not common to find pure forms of this disease that more often is a concomitant factor for the rising of myocardium infirmities with remarkable contractile insufficiency. In other cases, however, and this has no valid justification, the alcoholic patient, though presenting remarkable liver damage, does not show signs of heart implication. In the light of this knowledge, we stress the utility of educating the alcoholic patient to the just evaluation of the poison he is ingesting.