National survey on status of steroid therapy for cardiac sarcoidosis in Japan.

Aim: This investigation was undertaken to clarify the current status of steroid therapy for cardiac sarcoidosis in Japan.

Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted throughout Japan concerning cases in which steroid therapy had been administered. Replies describing 52 cases (15 men, 37 women; mean age +/- SD, 59.

Cardiac muscle cell disorganization in apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: a cardiac biopsy study.

Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy has been divided into two entities: apical asymmetric septal hypertrophy (apical ASH) and apical symmetric hypertrophy (AH). The latter differs clinically from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) with ASH, and it is unclear whether AH represents a distinct subtype of HCM. In the present study, the presence or absence and the extent of cardiac muscle cell disorganization, a histologic characteristic of HCM, were compared in patients with AH (n = 10) and ASH (n = 29) in whom cardiac biopsy specimens were obtained from the left ventricular apex and interventricular septum.