Forensic medical assessment of morphological changes in the myocardium, affecting its contractile capacity in cases of death from alcoholic cardiomyopathy

A retrospective analysis of acts of forensic medical autopsies from the archive of BSME and a histological study of myocardial tissue in 180 cases (87 women and 93 men) were carried out with statistical processing of the obtained results for the purpose of studying and assessing the morphological changes in the main components of the histohematological barrier of myocardium, affecting the contractility of the cardiac muscle in cases of the death from alcoholic cardiomyopathy. As a result of the study, it was found that the occurrence of metabolic disturbances due to the toxic effects of ethanol and its metabolites contribute to the development of hypoxia of the heart muscle with the development of dystrophic and irreversible necrobiotic processes in it, which in its turn play a direct role in the formation of excitability processes, contractile function of myofibrils with the development of fatal rhythm disorders. The morphological changes in the contractile apparatus of the myocardium were discovered in the study in polarized light and can be used to diagnose alcohol damage to the heart. During the study of deaths from alcoholic cardiomyopathy in forensic medicine, it is recommended to use methods of polarization microscopy.