[Carcinoid cardiopathy. A study of 40 cases]

Carcinoid is a slowly growing type of tumor; its pathological effects are primarily due to its endocrine symptomatology. Among the main causes of death are heart failure, liver disease and complications due to the tumor size. The purpose of this study was to investigate carcinoid heart disease in a wide necropsy sample. We analyzed 26,921 necropsies performed at the Institute of Pathology of the University of Trieste from January 1, 1976 to December 31, 1985. Out of the 26,921 necropsies we found 59 cases with carcinoid tumor. It is interesting to underline the presence of a second primary tumor in 28.8% of cases and of multiple tumors in 2 cases. In the heart we observed valvular abnormalities with no peculiar features in 16.1% of cases, ischemic heart disease in 52.2% and endocardial thickening in 15.9%. Our series, although rather large, did not show the high frequency of carcinoid heart disease that has been reported by other authors; instead, we observed a rather high prevalence of lesions typical of ischemic heart disease. The endocardial thickening seems to be the most interesting and specific finding.