Myocardial involvement in idiopathic hemochromatosis. Morphologic and clinical improvement following venesection.

We describe a 31 year old male patient who presented with severe cardiomyopathy caused by primary hemochromatosis. After a stormy course, complicated by heart failure and severe ventricular arrythmias, improvement in clinical status and myocardial function occurred. Depletion of myocardial iron was documented by the technique of serial endomyocardial biopsy. Myocardial iron stores were not yet depleted when hypoferremia and iron deficiency anemia occurred. This is the first reported study of myocardial morphology in a successfully treated patient with hemochromatotic cardiomyopathy.