Two cases of calcareous infiltration of the muscular fibre of the heart / by Joseph Coats.

  • Joseph Coats
Date:
[1872]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Two cases of calcareous infiltration of the muscular fibre of the heart / by Joseph Coats. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Wurzburg, in the summer of 1870, and not yet, so far as 1 am aware, published by him. Here, as in my case, the impregnation of lime salts was in a minutely granular form, and the salts were dissolved on the addition of hydrochloric acid, without the evolution of gas. It is not uncommon to meet with cases which have a superficial resemblance to those related above, cases, that is to say, of calcification, or so called ossification of the heart. But when these cases are examined, it is always found that the impregnation of lime salts is not into the muscular substance proper, but into some of the other tissues of the heart. The remarks from the works of Roki¬ tansky and Forster, quoted above, express this with sufficient clearness, and the same fact is also distinctly laid down in the following words of Dr Hope*—“In all these cases the disappearance of the muscular fibre is referable to atrophy, resulting from compression by the encroachment of the new productions.”—“All these transformations are generally results of pericarditis or endocarditis.” And, with the exception of the cases already mentioned, I have found no deviation from this rule. When we come to consider what may be the causes of the conditions found in these cases, very great difficulties present themselves. In the first case, it is noted that no history of the disease could be obtained; the patient was admitted in a dying condition, and no details of his illness were forthcoming. Looking to the post-mortem appearances, we find that these were evidences of old-standing bronchitis and emphysema, while the deposits in the liver, and the condition of the right tibia suggest the inquiry as to the existence of the syphilitic taint. In respect to the other case, the fact already referred to, of its occurrence in a case of pyaemia, is worthy of remembrance in connection with the causation, especially considering that in Meyer’s case, a similar lesion occurred in the muscles of the leg, in a case of gangrene and prolonged suppuration. The actual con- * On the Diseases of the Heart and Great Vessels, by Dr Hope. 1849. p. 330.
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