PMID: 3760616Jan 1, 1986Paper

A clinicopathologic study of dilated cardiomyopathy in the aged

Journal of cardiography. Supplement
S OhkawaM Sugiura

Abstract

This is a report of a clinicopathologic study of seven cases with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) among 3,000 consecutive autopsied cases 60 years or more in age. In this study DCM in the aged was defined as 1) cases of refractory heart failure with marked cardiomegaly of unknown cause by clinical and pathologic examinations, excluding hypertensive heart disease, ischemic heart disease, and valvular heart disease, and 2) pathologic examinations showing cardiac weight more than 400 g, normal coronary arteries with less than 9/15 coronary stenotic index (CSI) and a globular shaped heart with marked dilatation of the left ventricle. The following results were obtained: Seven cases of DCM in the aged consisted of two men and five women with an average age of 69.7 years. The incidence was 0.23% (7/3,000 autopsies). The average age of this group was less than those with other heart diseases such as myocardial infarction or valvular disease in the aged. The clinical course ranged from 3 to 22 years with a mean of 12 years. The symptoms of three of the seven cases persisted from the middle age. Electrocardiograms showed atrial fibrillation in five cases (71%), left bundle branch block in three (43%) and complete heart block in one (14%). ...Continue Reading

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