Abstract
Endocardial fibroelastosis, defined as an endocardium in excess of 30 microns thick, was found in 10 out of 34 cases of hydrops fetalis in a review of 1589 perinatal necropsies carried out between 1976 and 1989. The infants comprised 16 cases of rhesus haemolytic disease, of whom three had endocardial fibroelastosis, and 18 cases of non-rhesus hydrops, of whom seven had endocardial fibroelastosis. Intrauterine congestive heart failure was thought to have been the probable cause of hydrops in eight of the 10 infants with endocardial fibroelastosis. None of an age matched control group without endocardial fibroelastosis had evidence of congestive cardiac failure. These observations support the hypothesis that endocardial fibroelastosis is an endocardial response to chronic prenatal myocardial stress.
Full text
PDF
Images in this article
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Anand A., Gray E. S., Brown T., Clewley J. P., Cohen B. J. Human parvovirus infection in pregnancy and hydrops fetalis. N Engl J Med. 1987 Jan 22;316(4):183–186. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198701223160403. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- BLACK-SCHAFFER B. Infantile endocardial fibroelastosis; a suggested etiology. AMA Arch Pathol. 1957 Mar;63(3):281–306. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Baum J. D., Harris D. Colloid osmotic pressure in erythroblastosis fetalis. Br Med J. 1972 Mar 4;1(5800):601–603. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.5800.601. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Esscher E., Scott J. S. Congenital heart block and maternal systemic lupus erythematosus. Br Med J. 1979 May 12;1(6173):1235–1238. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.6173.1235. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- FISHER E. R., DAVIS E. R. [Observations concerning the pathogenesis of endocardial thickening in the adult heart]. Am Heart J. 1958 Oct;56(4):553–561. doi: 10.1016/0002-8703(58)90083-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Levin S. Parvovirus: a possible etiologic agent in cardiomyopathy and endocardial fibroelastosis. Hum Pathol. 1980 Sep;11(5):404–405. doi: 10.1016/s0046-8177(80)80045-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lurie P. R. Endocardial fibroelastosis is not a disease. Am J Cardiol. 1988 Sep 1;62(7):468–470. doi: 10.1016/0002-9149(88)90981-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Neustein H. B., Lurie P. R., Dahms B., Takahashi M. An X-linked recessive cardiomyopathy with abnormal mitochondria. Pediatrics. 1979 Jul;64(1):24–29. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Phibbs R. H., Johnson P., Tooley W. H. Cardiorespiratory status of erythroblastotic newborn infants. II. Blood volume, hematocrit, and serum albumin concentration in relation to hydrops fetalis. Pediatrics. 1974 Jan;53(1):13–23. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Radford D. J., Izukawa T., Rowe R. D. Congenital paroxysmal atrial tachycardia. Arch Dis Child. 1976 Aug;51(8):613–617. doi: 10.1136/adc.51.8.613. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]