This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by REGAN, T. J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by REGAN, T. J.

(Circulation. 1971;44:957.)
© 1971 American Heart Association, Inc.

---

Ethyl Alcohol and the Heart

TIMOTHY J. REGAN M.D.¹

¹ From the Department of Medicine, College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey.

Since a significant fraction of the population are heavy consumers of ethanol, and recent postmortem studies suggest that most alcoholics have some degree of cardiac abnormality, elucidation of the basis for alcoholic cardiomyopathy is of some importance. Intoxicating amounts of ethanol depress ventricular function acutely and effect leakage of myocardial cell components.

On the basis of studies in three animal species and in man, it would appear that the cumulative effects of chronic ethanol intake can, without evident malnutrition, depress ventricular function and produce metabolic and morphologic abnormalities of the myocardium before clinical manifestations. Progression of the disease to produce heart failure, arrhythmias, or thromboembolism, separately or in combination, occurs under multiple circumstances that are not clearly defined. These would appear to include the cumulative effects without superimposed factors, an intensified drinking episode, simultaneous exposure to trace metals in excess, and occasional specific nutritional deficiency or superimposed infection. The low incidence of nutritional complications such as cirrhosis, peripheral neuritis, and delirium tremens associated with cardiomyopathy supports the view that the cardiac abnormality is commonly not dependent on malnutrition. Finally, clinical data indicate that cessation of alcohol intake will reverse the disease or interrupt its progression in many patients. Anticoagulant therapy is recommended at least during the early recovery stage.

Key Words: Nutrition • Arrhythmia • Alcoholism, pathology • Electrolytes • Myocardial composition • Ventricular function

This article has been cited by other articles:

				H. Jankala, C. J. Peter Eriksson, N. E. Petersen, M. Harkonen, and T. Maki ROLE OF ACETALDEHYDE IN THE INDUCTION OF HEART LEFT VENTRICULAR ATRIAL NATRIURETIC PEPTIDE GENE EXPRESSION IN RATS Alcohol Alcohol., July 1, 2000; 35(4): 331 - 335. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. B. Kostis, M. J. Goodkind, H. Skvaza, N. H. Gerber JR, and P. T. Kuo Effect of Alcohol On the Atrial Fibrillation Threshold in Dogs Angiology, September 1, 1977; 28(9): 583 - 587. [Abstract] [PDF]