LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Abnormal cellularity in asymptomatic relatives of patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy
Charles J. McKenna, MD
Department of Cardiology, Battle Hospital, Oxford Road, Reading RG30 1AG, United Kingdom
cjmckenna{at}hotmail.com
I read with great interest the study by Mahon et al. (1) demonstrating abnormal myocardial pathology in apparently asymptomatic relatives of patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). This finding, of course, has great clinical import. The investigators state that their study "provides, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, direct pathologic confirmation that relatives with LVE (left ventricular enlargement) have myocardial disease ...". Several years ago, histopathologic changes were reported in a smaller number of asymptomatic first-degree relatives of patients with DCM (2). That study claimed, more correctly, to have shown "for the first time that the myocardium in such relatives demonstrates abnormal cellularity". The study was published in a nonobscure, English-language journal and, most suprisingly, Dr. Mahon was one of the co-authors!
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References
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1. Mahon NG, Madden BP, Caforio ALP, et al. Immunohistologic evidence of myocardial disease in apparently healthy relatives of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2002;39:455–462[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. McKenna CJ, Sugrue DD, Kwon HM, et al. Histopathologic changes in asymptomatic relatives of patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. Am J Cardiol. 1999;83:281–283[Medline]
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