Intracardiac autonomic ganglion cells in leprosy and dilated cardiomyopathy.

ABSTRACT

Disturbances in cardiac autonomic functions are known to occur in patients of lepromatous leprosy and dilated cardiomyopathy. We have analyzed the number of cardiac autonomic ganglion cells in patients of lepromatous leprosy (2 cases), dilated cardiomyopathy (2 cases) and compared with those of control subjects (2 cases). The average number of ganglion cells in cases of dilated cardiomyopathy (1164) and leprosy (1138) did not show any significant deviation from the average neuronal number of control subjects (1352).