[Heart diseases in alcoholics].

A complex approach to the whole range of diseases of the heart in alcoholics is presented. The authors are concerned with different variants of cardiac diseases induced by chronic alcoholism, understood and referred to in the light of the WHO concept as "alcoholic diseases of the heart". These conditions fall within the category of specific diseases of the myocardium, which in the stage of evident manifestations of cardiac insufficiency and dilation of the cavities are termed alcoholic cardiomyopathies. Although the etiology is not yet fully understood, the direct toxic effects of ethanol and acetaldehyde upon the structure and function of the myocardium due to the decreased functional activity of alcohol dehydrogenase and catalase are known to be involved in the development of alcoholic diseases of the heart. In chronic alcoholism the changes in the myocardium become increasingly irreversible. Moleculo-biological, biochemical, clinical, and morphological changes on cardiomocytes arising after the extensive effect of alcohol on different systems of the body are described in detail. The specific characteristics of clinical manifestations of different alcoholic diseases of the heart are analyzed and the currently used therapeutic procedures are discussed in relation to the clinical form and stage of the disease in the light of close cooperation with micrological departments.