Critical assessment of diagnostic value of endomyocardial biopsy. Assessment of cardiac biopsy

Abstract

Right or left ventricular endomyocardial biopsy with the Konno or the Olympus bioptome was attempted in 73 patients aged 5 months to 61 years, with 82 per cent success. Light and electron microscopy showed non-specific features in over half the biopsies with new or diagnostically useful information in only 10 per cent of cases, usually as a result of electron microscopy. The method is safe but is of strictly limited diagnostic value and is likely to be of most help as a research tool in the biochemical study of cardiomyopathies.