Reversibility of alcoholic cardiomyopathy with abstention from alcohol.

A 46-year-old chronic alcoholic patient with typical and severe congestive cardiomyopathy was studied hemodynamically on two separate occasions. The second study followed after a 1 1/2-year period of virtually complete abstention from alcohol and revealed that the left ventricular dysfunction had disappeared. Depsite persisting atrial fibrillation, the response to moderate exercise and to plasma volume expansion was within the normal range. When last seen, 29 months after initial hospitalization, the patient was symptom-free and was not given any treatment.