[Myocardial fatty dystrophy in patients with Fallot tetralogy].

Fatty degeneration (FD) was studied histochemically and ultrastructurally in surgical biopsies from 147 patients aged 22 days to 40 years with Fallot's tetralogy. FD was most pronounced in patients aged 3 to 6 years when the main part of cardiomyocytes completed the program of ontogenetical growth and started growing as hypertrophic mature cells. An increase of FD is considered as manifestation of an initial stage of hypertrophy of mature cardiomyocytes.