[Fatal vacuolar cardiomyopathy in chronic chloroquine drug treatment]

Clinical and morphological findings recorded in an 81-year-old woman patient with a 45-year history of rheumatoid arthritis treated with long-term chloroquine therapy are reported. The cause of death was low cardiac output syndrome, which upon autopsy and postmortem toxicological analyses was classified as vacuolar chloroquine-induced cardiomyopathy. The pathogenesis and the morphological and clinical characteristics of cardiotoxic effects of chloroquine are reviewed.