Lung and heart impairment in patients with chronic cor pulmonale associated or not with acute myocardial infarction. Anatomoclinical and morphometric study.

This study comprises the comparative analysis of the pathological and morphometric findings in the lung and heart of two groups of patients who died with chronic cor pulmonale (CCP), associated or not with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The histological pulmonary changes were fairly similar in subjects from both groups. In the heart, the right ventricle (RV) is more evidently impaired than the left ventricle (LV) in individuals with CCP without AMI, while in patients with CCP associated with AMI there was a fairly homogeneous damage of both ventricles. These data emphasize the involvement of LV in both groups of patients and support the view that CCP can be considered as an overall myocardiopathy and vasculopathy.