Endomyocardial fibrosis in Bahia, Brazil

Abstract

Endomyocardial fibrosis was originally reported as a prevalent condition leading to fatal cardiac failure in Uganda (Davies, 1960; Shillingford and Somers, 1961). Shortly afterwards, reports of new cases came from other African regions (Turner and Manson-Bahr, 1960; Abrahams, 1962) and isolated cases were recognized in America (Ishak and Tschumy, 1962), Europe (Lynch and Watt, 1957; Faruque, 1963), and Asia (Nagaratnam and Dissanayake, 1959). Great interest has been attached to the geographical distribution of this condition, as it may give a clue to the problems of etiology and pathogenesis which are still obscure. In Brazil, the disease has been recently reported in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul (Mattos et al., 1963; Fagundes, 1963). We have 4 cases of endomyocardial fibrosis in Bahia, a northern state. As this region of Brazil has some ethnic and socio-economic resemblance to the African regions in which endomyocardial fibrosis has been reported, it was considered worth while to publish these cases.