ABSTRACT
The recognition of alcohol as a potential cardiotoxicanl and even a comparatively common cause of heart disease came about only in the last century. The existence of "alcoholic cardiomyopathy", that is, a cardiomyopathy specifically associated with excessive and prolonged ethanol intake, was first recognized in the early 1960s and appears now to be generally accepted. The chronic ingestion of ethanol has been correlated with changes in ultrastructure, electrophysiology, contractile function, and biochemical processes. The chapter addresses the effects of alcohol on myocardial cell biochemistry and focuses on the metabolism of ethanol and mitochondrial function in the heart. The effect of ethanol on cardiac contractile performance has been difficult to analyze because of its many effects in the body. The development of a fatty liver after heavy ethanol consumption has been considered to involve lipid peroxidation, partly because this development is inhibited by antioxidants.
