[Adriamycin induced chronic cardiotoxicity: a morphological ultrastructural study on ventricular myocardium and conducting system of rabbit heart (author's transl)].

The administration of high doses of adriamycin in rabbits causes morphologically evident alterations of cardiac myocites, such as cellular structure disorganization, myofilaments disappearance and vacuolar degeneration through the cytoplasm. The less damaged myocites show protein synthesis activation with newly produced myofilaments. Macrophages and fibroblasts are seen in the interstitium among markedly injured cells. As a response to the toxic damage induced by adriamycin, it would be seen an hypertrophic compensatory response in the well preserved cells and interstitial fibrosis. The conducting system shows similar but less extensive lesions as the ventricular myocardium.