The objective of the present study was to study the morphological criteria for toxic cardiopathy with the use of histological and immunohistochemical methods. The results of immunohistochemical studies of the sinoatrial node---???---(SAN) and the working myocardium in the patients presenting with alcoholic cardiomyopathy (ACMP) are presented. It was shown that vimentin expression in the SAN structures and the contractile myocardium is slightly increased whereas the expression of sarcomeric actin is decreased and that of fibrinogen is increased too. The authors put forward an assumption about the role of lesions in the membrane apparatus of the pacemaker cells in the development of arrhythmia characteristic of tanatogenesis associated with alcoholic cardiomyopathy.

No abstract

The article presents results of a study on the correlation of histomorphometric parameters of the heart in case of death from alcoholic cardiomyopathy (ACM), ischemic heart disease (IHD) and mechanical injury (control group) by the method of correlation analysis. The previous studies show that normally with age, the myocardium of the sinoatrial node (SAN) is most worn out and fibrosed. In case of IHD the His bundles are most worn out and fibrosed. In case of ACM, histomorphological changes are uniform in all areas of the myocardium. This indicator can be used in practice when providing differential diagnosis of the above-described types of pathology and causes of death. In addition, the results of our study confirm that myocardial lipomatosis is more typical of ACM, which increases its diagnostic value.