Abstract
Cardiac myocytes are
presumed to enlarge with left ventricular
hypertrophy (LVH). This study correlates
histologically measured myocytes with lean and
fat body mass. Cases of LVH without coronary
heart disease and normal controls came from
forensic autopsies. The cross-sectional widths
of myocytes in H&E-stained paraffin sections
followed log normal distributions almost to
perfection in all 104 specimens, with constant
coefficient of variation across the full range
of ventricular weight, as expected if myocytes
of all sizes contribute proportionately to
hypertrophy. Myocyte sizes increased with
height. By regression analysis,
height2.7 as a proxy for lean body
mass and body mass index (BMI) as a proxy for
fat body mass, exerted equal effects in the
multiple correlation with myocyte volume, and
the equation rejected race and sex. In summary,
myocyte sizes, as indexes of LVH, suggest that
lean and fat body mass may contribute
equally.
Citation
ID:
260551
Ref Key:
tracy2011cardiologyhistologically