The significance of ventricular volume in the evaluation of secondary cardiomyopathy at autopsy

Abstract

Background: The weight, shape and consistency of the heart, and the thickness of the ventricular wall are used as parameters for evaluating postmortem heart and diagnosing cardiomyopathy at autopsy. Methods: The weight and volume of the ventricles and the thickness of the left ventricular wall of 58 hearts were measured and analyzed. Results: In the group of dilated hearts, the ventricular weight, ventricular volume, ventricular volume/ventricular weight, and left ventricular volume/right ventricular volume increased, whereas ventricular wall thickness decreased. In the group of hypertrophied hearts, the ventricular weight, ventricular volume, and thickness of the ventricular wall increased but ventricular volume/ventricular weight and left ventricular volume/right ventricular volume did not change significantly. In the group of undetermined hearts, it was later found that four of the cases should have been included in the dilated heart group and another two cases in the hypertrophied heart group. Conclusions: In addition to conventional methods, the measuring ventricular volume is useful for evaluating a postmortem heart and may suggest postmortem differential diagnoses of dilated or hypertrophied forms of secondary cardiomyopathies.