The myocardial cell: new concepts for the clinical cardiologist.

T HE GROWING BODY of research into the ultrastructure of the myocardial cell and the function of subcellular systems in the heart has reached proportions that make it both useful and pertinent to bring important new concepts in this area to the attention of the clinical cardiologist. Work on myocardial ultrastructure is no longer the province of the cellular anatomist and physiologist; increasingly, the clinical literature contains studies describing the cellular anatomy of both normal human myocardium and that of diseased hearts. Invariably, of course, such studies draw inferences about the mechanism of myocardial dysfunction on the basis of the ultrastructural changes observed.