An experimental study of the reversibility of cardiac hypertrophy

Summary

The author describes an original method of graded removable constriction of the abdominal aorta in albino rats and gives the data of morphological examination of the myocardium in 40 animals killed at various intervals after the creation of coarctation of the aorta, as well as after its removal. Constriction of the aortic lumen by 25% led in a month to a 60% increase of the mass of the myocardium; hypertrophy of the muscle fibers with development of dystrophic changes and necrosis of their individual groups and the appearance of initial signs of cardiosclerosis. The existence of a four-months old coarctation resoluted in further development of hypertrophy of the muscle fibers with an increase in the mass of the myocardium to 185% and development of severe diffuse perivascular myocardiofibrosis. Elimination of the coarctation of the aorta of one months standing led (in 4 months) to the reduction of the myocardial mass to its initial level, as well as to the disappearance of the muscle fiber hypertrophy and arrest in the progress of myocardiofibrosis.