Idiopathic Hypertrophy of the Heart in African Children

Heart Disease in the Elderly African

“…It embraces several entities, each possibly related to the other. These are subendomyocardial failure (described notably by Davies of Uganda), nutritional heart disease (Gillanders, 1951), cardiovascular collagenosis with parietal endocardial thrombosis (Becker et al, 1953), idiopathic hypertrophy of the heart in Africans (Altman and Stein, 1956;and Grusin, 1957) and last, but not least, reversible heart failure in Africans (Grusin, 1957).…”

Idiopathic cardiomegaly in Nigerian children.

“…Workers in various parts of the world, mainly in tropical and subtropical countries, have reported cases of unexplained cardiomegaly and cardiac failure under a variety of terms: cardiomegaly of unknown origin (World Health Organization, 1965), primary myocardial disease (Fowler, Gueron, and Rowlands, 1961), heart muscle disease (Edington and Jackson, 1963), idiopathic hypertrophy of the heart (Altman and Stein, 1956), cardiac disorders of unknown aetiology (Stuart and Hayes, 1963), cryptogenic heart disease (Higginson, Isaacson, and Simson, 1960), cardiomyopathy (Stein et al, 1964), idiopathic cardiomyopathy (Bloomfield and Liebman, 1963). These reports reveal a common feature of heart failure for which no definite cause can, be found, but they do not appear to be a homogeneous group aetiologically.…”

Idiopathic Cardiomegaly in African Children Further Experience with Cases Seen in Nigeria

“…A ltman and Stein [1956] from South Africa first drew attention to the occurrence of this condition in African children. These authors re ported four cases of what they termed 'Idiopathic hypertrophy of the heart in African children'.…”