Alcoholic Heart Disease

Alcohol and arrhythmias: a comprehensive review

“…He also noted the presence of atrial fibrillation (AF), paroxysmal atrial tachycardia (PAT) and bundle branch blocks (7). In a study of 50 patients at London Hospital, Bridgen and Robinson reported that half of the patients had AF at some time; nodal rhythm, ventricular extra systoles, complete heart block, left and right bundle branch blocks were also noted (8).In 1978 Ettinger and colleagues, coined the term "holiday heart" defined as "an acute cardiac rhythm and or conduction disturbance associated with heavy ethanol consumption in a person without other clinical evidence of heart disease and disappearing without evident residual, with abstinence." (9).…”

Myocardial metabolites of ethanol.

“…These results demonstrate the presence in human myocardium of a novel metabolite of ethanol that potentially may serve as a marker for exposure to alcohol and that could be relevant to the pathophysiology of excessive alcohol consumption leading to cardiac abnormalities. (Circ Res 52: 479-482, 1983) ALCOHOL-INDUCED heart muscle disease afflicts more than 200,000 patients (Bridgen and Robinson, 1964;Fink et al, 1979) and accounts for 3% of all cardiac admissions to city hospitals in the United States (Kramer et al, 1968). Manifestations include accumulation of myocardial triglycerides (Lochner et al, 1969;Regan et al, 1966;Ferrans et al, 1965;Kikuchi and Kako, 1970), decreased /J-oxidation of fatty acids (Kramer et al, 1968;Lochner et al, 1969;Regan et al, 1966;Segal at al., 1979), high grade atrial and ventricular arrhythmias, and congestive heart failure (Schwartz et al, 1975;Weishaar et al, 1977;Bing, 1978;Demakis et al, 1974).…”

O significado da abstinência do álcool na cardiomiopatia alcoólica com disfunção ventricular moderada

“…A partir da segunda metade deste século, ganhou maior difusão na clínica [3][4][5][6] . Entre os 673 pacientes consecutivos com IC congestiva estudados no período de 1982 a 1991, no Johns Hopkins Hospital, a causa mais freqüente foi a cardiomiopatia dilatada com 46,5%, estando o álcool presente em 23 (3,4%) pacientes, em indivíduos que consumiam mais do que 224g/dia de etanol, por mais de seis meses ou em tratamento do alcoolismo 7 .…”

“…O elemento de maior significado no tratamento da cardiomiopatia alcoólica (CMA) é a abstinência, que deve ser perseguida em qualquer fase da agressão [3][4][5][6][8][9][10][11] . Alguns autores pregam a proibição total do consumo de álcool, não se admitindo sequer o seu uso social, pois deprime ainda mais o miocárdio, precipitando arritmias [8][9][10][11][12] .…”