PMID: 2094833Nov 1, 1990Paper

Hypoxic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. A morphological and pathogenetic study on the myocardial atrophy and fatty infiltration

Pathologica
F Silvestri, R Bussani

Abstract

The autopsy report of an asymptomatic, non familial cardiomyopathy with widespread fatty infiltration of the right ventricular wall in two alcoholic subjects, who were also heavy smokers and suffering from a serious laryngeal obstruction, led the Authors to investigate, on the basis of a thorough review of the literature, the possibility that hypoxia, alcoholism and smoke could have caused the development of the cardiac lesion. The presence of myocardial fatty infiltration is explained, under conditions of high-flow hypoxia, by the reduced fatty acid oxidation. The higher tissue levels of fatty acyl-CoA, fatty acyl-carnitine and alpha-glycerophosphate thereby lead to the increased conversion of the FFA into tissue lipids. Under hypoxic conditions there is also an increased polyols synthesis. The reduced conversion of dyacylglycerol into phosphatidic acid causes its tissutal increase and the interaction with fatty acyl-CoA to produce triacylglycerol and CoASH. In alcoholic patients reduced oxidation and increased FFA synthesis is sustained by the altered mitochondrial respiratory control and excess of acetate, with the consequent increase in acetyl-CoA, fatty acyl-CoA and alpha-glycerophosphate concentration. In addition, fatty ...Continue Reading

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