Body weight continues to increase worldwide due primarily to the increase in body
fat. This study analyzes the frequency of massive adiposity at hearts of patients
who underwent heart transplantation (HT) determined by the ability of the heart to
float in a container of 10% formaldehyde (because adipose tissue is lighter than myocardium)
and compares certain characteristics of those patients with and without floating hearts.
The hearts studied at HT during a 3-year period (2013 to 2015) at Baylor University
Medical Center were carefully “cleaned” and weighed by the same individual and tested
as to their ability to float in a container of formaldehyde, an indication of severe
cardiac adiposity. Of the 220 hearts studied, 84 (38%) floated in a container of formaldehyde
and 136 (62%) did not. Comparison of the 84 patients with floating hearts to the 136
with nonfloating hearts showed a significant difference in ages, but a nonsignificant
difference in gender, body mass index, frequency of systemic hypertension, or diabetes
mellitus. The odds of a heart being a floating one was increased in patients with
a diagnosis of ischemic cardiomyopathy (unadjusted odds ratio 2.12, 95% CI 1.21 to
3.70). The frequency of massive cardiac adiposity in the native hearts of patients
having HT (38%) is striking and appears to have increased in frequency in the recent
decades.
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References
- The floating heart or the heart too fat to sink: analysis of 55 necropsy patients.Am J Cardiol. 1983; 52: 1286-1289
- Frequency of massive cardiac adiposity (floating heart) at necropsy and comparison of clinical and morphologic variables with nonmassive cardiac adiposity at a single Texas hospital, 2013 to 2014.Am J Cardiol. 2016; 117http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2015.12.039
Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 28, 2016
Accepted:
January 20,
2016
Received in revised form:
January 20,
2016
Received:
January 15,
2016
Footnotes
This study was funded by the Baylor Health Care System Foundation through the Cardiovascular Research Review Committee and in cooperation with the Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute.
See page 1380 for disclosure information.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.