Ventricular Weight in Cardiac Hypertrophy

Ventricular hypertrophy is usually estimated at necropsy by weighing the heart as a whole and by measuring the thickness of the ventricular walls. The weight of the heart as a whole is open to the objection that a large and varying proportion of the weight is accounted for by structures other than the myocardium, and the thickness of the ventricular wall is not a satisfactory criterion because it may be greatly modified by dilatation of the cavity. The traditional methods are particularly unsatisfactory when used to assess slight or moderate hypertrophy of the right ventricle.