Estimation of normal heart weight in Japanese subjects: development of a simplified normal heart weight scale

Abstract

To estimate cardiac workload from total heart weight (HW) in persons who have died suddenly, standards of normal HW must be established. We present standards of normal HW for Japanese subjects and propose a simplified scale for calculating normal HW from body height (BH) and body weight (BW). A total of 830 persons (506 male and 324 female) who had died suddenly of unnatural causes were selected for analysis from among persons examined at forensic autopsy at the Jikei University School of Medicine. The HW, BH and BW of each subject were measured. Body surface area (BSA) in square meters was calculated from BH in centimeters and BW in kilograms with Takahira's equation. We found allometric relations between HW and BSA represented by these equations: HW=BSA(1.441) x 168.200 for males and HW=BSA(1.367) x 161.970 for females. For practical use, we developed a simplified scale with which normal HW can be easily and quickly calculated from BH and BW. Our simple technique can be used to estimate normal HW in routine autopsy practice.