ABSTRACT
The heart’s task is simple enough. It is responsible for providing the body’s tissues with adequate nutrients via the bloodstream. While the task remains the same throughout life, the cardiac output required to satisfy this mission and the work required to generate it vary with both physiologic and pathophysiologic conditions that develop in the course of existence. Hypertrophy referred to an increase in mass and weight irrespective of ventricular geometry. Remodeling implied a change in geometry without a change in weight. Thus, a ventricle that is enlarged in size but suffered wall thinning would have the same cardiac weight but would have undergone substantial remodeling. Although evidence for myocyte mitosis exists, it is generally held that cardiomyocytes become terminally differentiated shortly after birth. Hypertrophy accompanies abnormal loading conditions for which the hypertrophy is a major form of compensation by which the increased cardiac mass permits increased pumping capacity of the heart.
