The "munich beer heart"--revisited.

This is a historical review of "idiopathic cardiac hypertrophy with dilatation", or as it was called by Bollinger "alcoholic-plethoric beer heart". Some of the sources are not readily accessible, as they had only been published in "Veröffentlichungen" or Contributions from the Pathological Institute, Munich. The condition later became known as "Munich Beer Heart" and apparently constituted quite a medical problem for young to middle aged men in Munich at the end of the 19th century. As evidenced by this review, a substantial number of the patients reported by Bollinger and his contemporaries, nowadays, would be considered to have alcoholic cardiomyopathy or Beriberi heart disease.