Abstract
Despite the many possible causes of heart failure, dilatation of the chambers and hypertrophy of the individual myocardial fibres are typically encountered. Exceptions are thesaurismoses (amyloidosis, glycogenoses), which may display thickened heart walls. In the decompensated hypertensive heart, first left ventricular hypertrophy occurs and later dilatation. Due to the increase in diastolic filling pressure and the resulting postcapillary pulmonary hypertension, often right ventricular hypertrophy and later right ventricular dilatation follow. In cor pulmonale, the right ventricle is mostly affected. Macro-scopically, chronic heart failure is characterized by a rounded apex and an increase in transverse diameter, thereby approaching a ball-like shape. The increase in weight is essentially due to the increase in mass, which is promoted by an increased interstitial content of collagen (Hort 1955, 1968).
Keywords
- Chronic Heart Failure
- Ventricular Hypertrophy
- Transverse Diameter
- Myocardial Hypertrophy
- Pathological Anatomy
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Böhm, M., Erdmann, E. (1998). Normal and Pathological Anatomy. In: Erdmann, E., Riecker, G. (eds) Chronic Heart Failure. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-85913-7_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-85913-7_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-63579-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-85913-7
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