Abstract

DE SUAREZ, Claudia B et al. Enfermedades del miocardio: Estudio en 1891 autopsias (1994-1999). Gac Méd Caracas [online]. 2001, vol.109, n.4, pp.497-507. ISSN 0367-4762.

SUMMARY Diseases of the myocardium are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in Venezuela. For more than four decades they have been the subject of diverse autopsy studies being of importance the dilated cardiomyopathy and chronic Chagasic myocarditis, this last one endemic in Latin America. With the purpose of evaluating distribution, frequency and pathologic characteristics of the main myocardial diseases in the last six years ( l994-1999), 334 cases were chosen from 1891 autopsies done at the anatomía patológica Institute-Universidad Central de Venezuela. The distribution of the cases of the cardiomyopathies were done following the World Health Organization /International Society and Federation de Cardiology criteria of l995. The hypertensive cardiomyopathy was the most frequent (n=282-84,4%) following by the ischemic C (n= 20-6%) and the inflammatory C (14-4.1%). The hypertensive cardiomyopathy was associated to ischemic C in 144 cases (51%) and both of them to diabetes in 52(18%) of the cases. The cardiomyopathy group included: dilated cardiomyopathy (7/9) and restrictive C (2/9) Cases of idiopathic restrictive C and arrithmogenic dysplasia of the right ventricle severe were not diagnosed. The Chagas myocarditis was the most frequent of the inflammatory C. The decreasing number of autopsies for year limited the epidemiologic necropsies studies

Keywords : Cardiomyopathies; Myocarditis; Hypertensive cardiomyopathy .