Congenital hypoplasia of portions of both right and left ventricular myocardial walls: Clinical and necropsy observations in two patients with parchment heart syndrome

Clinical and morphologic findings are described in two patients with congenital hypoplasia of portions of both right and left ventricular free walls in the absence of associated coronary or valvular heart disease. One, a 61 year old man who had never had clinical evidence of cardiac dysfunction, died suddenly and unexpectedly. The second, a 55 year old woman, died of progressive, eventually intractable congestive heart failure of 29 months' duration. Although at least 22 necropsy patients have previously been reported to have “parchment-like” thinning of portions of the right ventricular free wall, only one patient has previously been described with such thinning of portions of both right and left ventricular free walls. The spectrum of right or right and left ventricular wall congenital hypoplasia is a broad one, with nearly half of described patients dying of congestive heart failure in the 1st year of life and the other half reaching adulthood with or without manifestations of cardiac dysfunction.