Highlights the critical importance of vigorous alcohol abstinence during the asymptomatic phase of impaired left ventricular performance to prevent progression of alcoholic cardiomyopathy.
Identifies potential intervention window before symptomatic HF; leaves open whether abstinence alters progression in asymptomatic phase.
Alcoholic cardiomyopathy is a slowly progressive, insidious disease which causes death in three to five years after the first bout of congestive failure. Recent studies show that there is a prolonged period of impaired left ventricular performance during which the individual has no cardiac symptoms. This is the time to pursue a program of abstinence vigorously.
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Carl S. Alexander (1975) studied this question.
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