Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy

Excerpt

Alcohol-induced toxicity leads to non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy characterized by loss of contractile function and dilatation of myocardial ventricles. These findings are coupled with a clinical history of heavy alcohol use in the absence of coronary artery disease as a supportive etiology.

Alcohol use is an important cause for non-ischemic cardiomyopathy and accounts for 10% of all cases of dilated cardiomyopathies.

The major risk factor for developing ACM is chronic alcohol abuse; however, there is no specific cutoff value for the amount of alcohol consumption that would lead to the development of ACM.