Löffler's endocarditis
Related people
A very rare form of progressive endocarditis associated with a highly increased number of eosinophilic granulocytes in the blood. The acute form is marked by eosinophilic arteritis of various organs including the heart, leading to cardiac enlargement of all chambers, marked by leathery, greyish-white lesions that extend into the myocardium and papillary muscles in chordae tendinae. The insidious form is characterized by a gradual decrease of tolerance to physical effort and symptoms suggesting constrictive pericarditis. Mitral and tricuspid incompetence and regurgitation, murmurs of mitral stenosis, and electrocardiographic S-T Segment and T Wave abnormalities are the most common manifestations.
Bibliography
- W. Rindfleisch:
Inaugural Dissertation Königsberg. 1898. - W. Löffler:
Endocarditis parietalis fibroplastica mit Bluteosinophilie. Ein eigenartiges Krankheitsbild.
Schweizerische medizinische Wochenschrift, Basel, 1936, 66: 817-820.