Ultrastructure of mitochondrial reticulum of human cardiomyocytes in alcohol cardiomyopathy.

Endomyocardial left ventricular biopsy material from patients with chronic alcoholism exhibits structural alterations of the mitochondrial reticulum in alcohol cardiomyopathy. The progress of gradually developing structural changes depends on the stage of the disease. The early stage of the disease is characterized by spatial reorganization of the mitochondrial reticulum: intermitochondrial junctions disappear and mitochondria form separate clusters uniformly distributed within a muscle cell.

Alcoholic cardiomyopathy and sudden cardiac death.

Seven hundred fifty-two cases of instantaneous sudden cardiac death were studied. Alcoholic cardiomyopathy was found in 127 cases (16.9%), predominantly in men under age 50 (73%).

Ultrastructural and histochemical observations in human and experimental alcoholic cardiomyopathy.

The morphologic features of alcoholic cardiomyopathy in human sudden death compared with those of experimental alcoholic cardiomyopathy (6 weeks of alcohol administration and simultaneous inhibition of catalase activity) proved to be nearly identical. Regular and similar alterations in alcoholic cardiomyopathy in both human victims of sudden death and experimental rats are described as a complex of alterations characteristic of alcoholic cardiomyopathy. This complex of changes was used as the basis for morphologic diagnosis of endomyocardial biopsy in two groups of patients: I) chronic alcoholics (second to third stages), and II) patients with clinically diagnosed congestive cardiomyopathy.

Electron microscopic demonstration of viruses and bacteria in cardiac myocytes from victims of sudden cardiac death.

In 7 men and 1 woman who died suddenly the functionally important areas of myocardium in the sino-auricular area and the subendocardial layers of left ventricle were obtained by necropsy no more than 3 h after death, and then prepared for study by electron microscopy. In three cases of five, in whom the cause of death was cardiovascular insufficiency, viral particles and bacteria were identified. In three other cases of sudden non-cardiac death they were not found.