Quantitation of fibrosis of the heart in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with and without cor pulmonale.

This study examined the hearts of 55 patients dying of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, with and without cor pulmonale, quantitated histologically the degree of myocardial fibrosis in the left and right ventricle, and determined the relationship to associated disease states. Comparison has been made to a control group of 17 patients free of cardiopulmonary disease. Patients with associated and advanced ischemic heart disease, as proved by marked atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction, have significantly increased myocardial fibrosis throughout all layers of the left ventricular wall in comparison to control patients or patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease free of associated cardiac disease. Right ventricular fibrosis was not significantly increased; however, one case showed a marked degree of fibrosis related to myocardial infarction. Subdivision of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease into groups with definite anatomic right ventricular hypertrophy, a clinical diagnosis of cor pulmonale, or with chronic hypoxemia failed to show any difference in the percentage of myocardial fibrosis of the ventricles among these groups. Increased fibrosis of the right or left ventricle in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, therefore, is not related to the degree of myocardial hypertrophy pathologically, the hypoxemic state, or clinical heart failure, but to ischemic heart disease with myocardial infarction.