Pathogenesis And Clinical Manifestations Of Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy

The amount of alcohol consumption is getting larger with the improvement of living standards.And it has drawn greater attention that the morbidity of alcoholic cardiomyopathy(ACM)tends to increase.ACM is characterized by dilation of myocardial ventricles,arrhythmia and cardiac insufficiency,along with a long history of alcohol abuse.Mechanisms may include oxidative stress,apoptotic cell death,impaired mitochondrial bioenergetics,derangements in fatty acid metabolism,and nutritional disturbance.Levels of phosphatidylethanols in blood could be used as markers of previous alcohol consumption.Patients in early stage could recover by abstinence of alcohol,while others need treatment for heart failure and arrhythmia.The lack of knowledge to ACM makes early diagnosis and intervention difficult to achieve better prognosis.The aim of this review is to mainly describe the pathogenesis and clinical manifestations of ACM.