Vacuolated cardiomyocytes in human endomyocardial biopsy specimens

Publication date: Available online 7 October 2019Source: Journal of Cardiology CasesAuthor(s): Genzou Takemura, Kenji Onoue, Takanori Arimoto, Tetsu Watanabe, Akiko Tsujimoto, Chihiro Takada, Hideshi Okada, Tomoya Nakano, Yasuhiro Sakaguchi, Nagisa Miyazaki, Takatomo Watanabe, Hiromitsu Kanamori, Shinji Ogura, Yoshihiko Saito, Takako Fujiwara, Hisayoshi Fujiwara, Yasuaki HottaAbstractWe encountered an unfamiliar finding during electron microscopic examination of an endomyocardial biopsy obtained from a 55-year-old woman suffering from heart failure due to dilated phase hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Many cardiomyocytes contained large vacuoles that were mainly empty except for small amounts of amorphous substrate. These were not autophagic vacuoles, as they lacked limiting membranes. Six years later, we encountered similar histological findings in three successive biopsies sourced from another hospital. They were obtained from a 77-year-old man with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a 28-year-old woman with endocardial fibrosis, and a 33-year-old man with dilated cardiomyopathy. This biopsy was the second for the endocardial fibrosis patient, and her first biopsy showed no vacuoles within cardiomyocytes. Close inspection of the procedures revealed that in all of these cases the fixed biopsy specimens were carried to the hospital from other institutes using a refrigerated courier service. We then fixed rat heart tissues, froze them once, and processed them for electron microscopy. In...

Source: Journal of Cardiology Cases - October 9, 2019 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research