[Heart wall rupture in acute myocardial infarct. An autopsy study in comparison with infarcts without rupture]

Abstract

Among 237 patients who died of acute myocardial infarction (4% of the 5,390 autopsies from 1975 to 1979) 43 cases (18%) with a rupture of the cardiac wall were found. These 43 cases of rupture were compared with 43 non-rupture cases of the same period. In difference to the non-rupture cases the average weight of the heart was smaller. Myocardial scars, additional basic diseases and a lung oedema were rarer; an extended region of the infarction and an anamnestically known chronic ischemic heart disease were observed significantly more frequently. In what respect these and other analysed factors are responsible for the rupture mechanism, cannot be clearly estimated. Apart from a continuing hypertension as well as a relatively smaller weight of the heart and the absence of myocardial scars the extension of the area of the infarction as well as the possible effect of granulocytic enzymes in the area of the infarction appear significant for the origin of a heart rupture.