Value and limitations of human myocardial biopsy.

Twenty-three myocardial biopsies from 22 patients with various cardiological diseases were examined by light and electron microscopy. The amount of fibrosis, endocardial thickening, “whorling of myofibers”, “irregular running of myofibers”, fat infiltration and lipofuscein granules were compared to cardiological parameters such as the function group of the patients, cardiac index, stroke index and the pulmonary capillary wedge pressure. The histological grading showed a weak correlation to the function group of the patients and the pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, but not to the cardiac index or stroke index. While patients with an almost normal heart function had a normal histology, both normal and abnormal histology were seen in patiens with severe heart disease. It was not possible to relate any morphological changes in the myocardium, neither at the light microscopical nor at the ultrastructural level to specific heart diseases as for example primary or alcoholic cardiomyopathy. However, severe contraction artefacts disturbed both the light microscopical and especially the ultrastructural evaluation of the specimens.This problem is discussed and in order to diminish the risk of misinterpretation of myocardial biopsy specimens, recommendations are given with regard to fixation, mincing and embedding of the specimens as well as to the evaluation of both the light microscopic slides and the ultrathin sections.