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The Long-term Effects of Alcohol on the Cardiovascular System

Bassam Moushmoush, MD; Pierre Abi-Mansour, MD

Arch Intern Med. 1991;151(1):36-42.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

The toxic effects of chronic alcohol abuse on cerebral and hepatic function have long been recognized.¹ Moreover, it is clear that the habitual consumption of large amounts of alcohol has a variety of deleterious effects on the cardiovascular system. This review considers the evidence concerning the long-term effects of alcohol on the cardiovascular system with particular reference to its effects on the myocardium, arrhythmias, blood pressure, coronary artery disease, and alcohol-induced congenital heart disease.

ALCOHOLIC CARDIOMYOPATHY

Alcohol has been known to be injurious to the heart for well over a century.² Direct alcohol-related heart disease has been confused with beriberi heart failure in malnourished vitamin-deficient alcoholics.³ The clinical features that alcoholic cardiomyopathy and beriberi have in common include cardiac chamber dilatation, tachycardia, elevated venous pressure, and peripheral edema. However, the depressed cardiac output and ventricular hypocontractility of the chronic alcoholic patient⁴ represent a distinctly different hemodynamic profile . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Section of Cardiology, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Ill.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication July 31, 1990.

Reprints not available.

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