Alcohol and the heart in humans and animal models

This chapter describes the pathogenesis of alcoholic heart muscle disease as a problem of cumulative alcohol intake, rather than due to immediate consumption or the type of alcohol beverage. Therefore, alcoholic heart muscle disease should be considered in terms of a problem occurring from middle to old age and the chapter is written from this perspective. However, the pathogenic mechanisms are unknown and the availability of clinical material for detailed biochemical analysis is limited. There is also considerable patient variability. This has led to the utilization of animal studies to provide sufficient material for elucidating the biochemical features and mechanisms of heart muscle damage in alcoholic cardiomyopathy. This chapter also describes three features of alcoholic cardiomyopathy, namely, the formation of acetaldehyde adducts, changes in cardiac enzyme activities, and protein analysis by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-DE). Comparative reference is made with observations derived from patientbased studies and experimental animals