Morphological changes in the heart accompanying the lymph flow disturbance

The author investigated the role played by insufficiency of the cardiac lymph system in the genesis of coronary sclerosis in 20 hearts with signs of lymph stoppage, obtained from patients deceased of malignant neoplasms with metastatic affection of mediastinal lymph nodes, and in 53 dogs, in which the lymph drainage from the heart had been disturbed by ligation and extirpation of the cardiac distal lymph collectors. The structural changes in the intracardiac lymph systems, arterial wall, stroma, and contractile myocardium were investigated by histological, histochemical, and stereoangioscopic methods, in polarized light and by electron microscopy. The findings attested to a marked fibroplastic character of the cardiac lymph arrest and the latter's noxious effect on the cardiomyocytes. The qualitative characteristics and basic mechanisms of lymphogenic sclerosis were discovered, and the adaptive and pathological rebuilding of the cardiac lymph system was described, associated with lymphovenous shunt formation. Comparison of the findings with the character and consequences of changes in the cardiac lymph system in coronary disease showed that lymph drainage arrest of any origin whatever actively supports the genesis of coronary sclerosis.