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Arterial hypertension and remodelling of the right ventricle
- Department of Clinical Anatomy, Gdansk Medical University, Gdansk, Poland
- Department of Forensic Medicine, Gdansk Medical University, Gdansk, Poland
open access
Abstract
Background: In the case of long-term and physiological loads (e.g. during pregnancy or regular athletics training), reversible morphological changes occur in the heart — cardiomyocytes undergo hypertrophy; however, this is not accompanied by impairment of left ventricular function or myocyte metabolism. However, in the course of various pathological processes, as time goes by, gradually permanent morphological changes occur. These changes are referred to as remodelling of the heart muscle, which, regardless of the primary cause, can lead to the development of chronic heart failure.
Materials and methods: The study was performed on post-mortem material of 35 human hearts obtained from forensic sections and anatomopathological sections of people who died of non-cardiac causes (mainly traffic accidents, suicide attempts, strokes, acute infections); material was fixed in a 4% formalin solution. The hearts were subjected to macro- and microscopic assessment. During microscopic assessment the features of remodelling were evaluated.
Results and Conclusions: In vivo and echocardiographic tests, as well as macroscopic evaluation of post-mortem material, suggest the presence of some kind of right ventricular muscle remodelling; however, classic microscopic observations, presented in this study, do not provide such unambiguous evidence. Thus, the question arises: why and how the right ventricular function is disturbed, sometimes at early stages of arterial hypertension.
Abstract
Background: In the case of long-term and physiological loads (e.g. during pregnancy or regular athletics training), reversible morphological changes occur in the heart — cardiomyocytes undergo hypertrophy; however, this is not accompanied by impairment of left ventricular function or myocyte metabolism. However, in the course of various pathological processes, as time goes by, gradually permanent morphological changes occur. These changes are referred to as remodelling of the heart muscle, which, regardless of the primary cause, can lead to the development of chronic heart failure.
Materials and methods: The study was performed on post-mortem material of 35 human hearts obtained from forensic sections and anatomopathological sections of people who died of non-cardiac causes (mainly traffic accidents, suicide attempts, strokes, acute infections); material was fixed in a 4% formalin solution. The hearts were subjected to macro- and microscopic assessment. During microscopic assessment the features of remodelling were evaluated.
Results and Conclusions: In vivo and echocardiographic tests, as well as macroscopic evaluation of post-mortem material, suggest the presence of some kind of right ventricular muscle remodelling; however, classic microscopic observations, presented in this study, do not provide such unambiguous evidence. Thus, the question arises: why and how the right ventricular function is disturbed, sometimes at early stages of arterial hypertension.
Keywords
heart, human, changes, hypertensive
Title
Arterial hypertension and remodelling of the right ventricle
Journal
Issue
Article type
Original article
Pages
336-342
Published online
2021-04-13
Page views
5401
Article views/downloads
963
DOI
Pubmed
Bibliographic record
Folia Morphol 2022;81(2):336-342.
Keywords
heart
human
changes
hypertensive
Authors
A. Kosiński
G. M. Piwko
R. Kamiński
E. Nowicka
A. Kaczyńska
M. Zajączkowski
K. Czerwiec
M. Gleinert-Rożek
K. Karnecki
T. Gos
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