The hepatic and neuropsychiatric disorders caused by long term excessive alcohol abuse have been well documented. However the pathogenesis and clinical characteristics of cardiovascular disorder caused by excessive alcohol abuse has not been documented. Many patients diagnosed as idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy(IDCM) are apt to have a history of heavy alcohol consumption and are categorized as having alcoholic ardiomyopathy(ACM).

Twenty men(agedd 32 to 63 yrs, mean age 48.6 yrs) with dilated dcardiomyopathy, with the history of excessive alcohol abuse, were analyzed with fifteen patients with IDCM as control.

The most common alcoholic beverage consumed in ACM is Diluted soju(85.0%) followed by Takju(10.0%), beer(5.0%). Average daily alcohol consumption is 134.5±40.3 g, frequency of alcohol intake in a week 5.4±1.4 times, total life time dose of ethanol 20.0±7.8kg/kg of body weight and duration of alcohol intake 26.9±8.4 years. There were no significant differences in symptoms between the two groups. In electrocardiography, atrial fibrillation is more frequent in ACM group(40%) than IDCM group(20%). In ACM group, serum concentrations of triglyceride and total cholesterol are higher than IDCM group, but no differences in serum HDL-cholesterol, SGOT, SGPT concentrations. In echocardiography, left ventricular systolic internal dimension and right ventricular internal dimension is smaller and ejection fraction is larger in ACM group than IDCM group.

We studied the clinical, laboratory, electrocardiographic and echocardiographic characteristics of alcoholic cardiomyopathy comparing with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.