Endomyocardial fibrosis is a form of cardiomyopathy endemic in East, Central, and West Africa (Davies, I948; Connor et al., i967, I968). A similar disease has occasionally been described in other tropical regions, e.g. South America (Andrade and Guimaraes, I964), India (Gopi, i968), and Ceylon (Nagaratnam and Dissanayake, I959). Authenticated cases have been reported in Caucasian patients who h...

Endomyocardial fibrosis (EMF) is a distinct obliterative cardiomyopathy characterized anatomically by right/left/bi ventricular endocardial fibrotic thickening and varying degrees of obliteration of the ventricular cavity. Chamber obliteration leads to diastolic restriction to ventricular filling and thus diastolic ventricular dysfunction. Involvement of the chordae tendinae and papillary muscl...

Endomyocardial fibrosis (EMF) is a disease of the rain-forest belt in Africa. There is general agreement as to its pathology in the acute phase, but this is difficult to diagnose clinically. The aetiology is still unknown although there are reports which suggest that eosinophilic endomyocardial disease may be the cause. Further studies are needed to define EMF in its acute stage and find out ho...

Fibrosis of the endocardium and myocardium, in the absence of disease of the coronary arteries, still receives scant attention in the standard medical textbooks. It has been recognized for many years as a comparatively uncommon complication of collagen diseases, infiltrative diseases (amyloid, haemochromatosis, von Gierke's disease), beriberi, Friedreich's ataxia and the muscular dystrophies, a...

P ERICARDIAL effusion is relatively common in tropical Africa, and because of the prevalence of tuberculosis in such developing countries most large sterile pericardial effusions are frequently regarded as tubereulous unless proof to the contrary is forthcoming. With the recent introduction of chemotherapy such a diagnosis demands the long-term exhibition of antituberculous drugs. It has been k...

P ERICARDIAL effusion is relatively common in tropical Africa, and because of the prevalence of tuberculosis in such developing countries most large sterile pericardial effusions are frequently regarded as tubereulous unless proof to the contrary is forthcoming. With the recent introduction of chemotherapy such a diagnosis demands the long-term exhibition of antituberculous drugs. It has been k...