Neurohistochemical and electron microscopic investigations of pathological and age-related changes in the cardiovascular system.

Neurohistochemical and electron microscopic investigations of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) of man and animals suggest that its ontogenesis can be divided into the premediatory, mediatory and postmediatory periods of development. The postmediatory period begins heterochronically in various ganglia of the ANS. A normal process of early cardiac desympathization usually occurs at the age of 35 to 60 years.

Changes in neural and humoral mechanisms of the heart in sudden death due to myocardial abnormalities.

Quantitative neurohistochemical study of adrenergic elements of the myocardium and the adrenal medulla in victims of sudden death revealed an unequal and focal depletion of catecholamines attributable to prior pathologic processes in the myocardium. The greatest changes in cardiac innervation were found in cases of acute myocardial infarction and alcoholic cardiomyopathy, and the adrenergic plexuses were better preserved in cases of coronary heart disease without focal myocardial changes. Ultrastructural study of cardiac innervation in patients who died suddenly showed more pronounced changes in the nerve plexuses of the sinus node than in the perinodal nerves of the working myocardium.