Histologically Measured Cardiomyocyte Hypertrophy Correlates with Body Height as Strongly as with Body Mass Index

Cardiac myocytes are presumed to enlarge with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). This study correlates histologically measured myocytes with lean and fat body mass. Cases of LVH without coronary heart disease and normal controls came from forensic autopsies. The cross-sectional widths of myocytes in H&E-stained paraffin sections followed log normal distributions almost to perfection in all 104 specimens, with constant coefficient of variation across the full range of ventricular weight, as expected if myocytes of all sizes contribute proportionately to hypertrophy. Myocyte sizes increased with height. By regression analysis, height(2.7) as a proxy for lean body mass and body mass index (BMI) as a proxy for fat body mass, exerted equal effects in the multiple correlation with myocyte volume, and the equation rejected race and sex. In summary, myocyte sizes, as indexes of LVH, suggest that lean and fat body mass may contribute equally.