[Left heart ventricle in chronic cor pulmonale patients. Etiological, pathomorphological and organ weight measurement studies].

The histories and the results of the postmortem examinations of 507 patients with chronic pulmonary heart disease were studied. In 62.6% of them left ventricular hypertrophy was found. As probable causes for this left ventricular hypertrophy are suggested: arterial hypertension, ischemic heart disease, hypoxemia, hypercapnia, heart failure, diabetes mellitus. The weight measurement correlations between the left and the right heart ventricles were studied in: "normal hearts", hearts with right ventricular, hypertrophy only, hypertrophy of both ventricles, left ventricular hypertrophy only. A correlation between the mass increase and the wall thickness of the ventricles was established. In the patients with chronic pulmonary heart disease and hypertrophy of both ventricles the mass and the wall thickness of the ventricles increase simultaneously. The possible pathogenetic mechanisms of the left ventricular involvement in patients with chronic pulmonary heart disease are discussed.