Results of endomyocardial biopsy—histological, histochemical and ultrastructural analysis

Abstract

Although this technique of investigation has been practised for many years in Japan and reported by Konno, Sekiguchi and Sakakibara in 1971, it has only recently become more widely used in Europe. So far, biopsy material from fifty-six patients*, thirty-nine of whom were suspected of suffering from a type of cardiomyopathy, have been examined. This paper concentrates on the diagnostic value which can be derived from the material obtained by Konno’s bioptome (Sakakibara and Konno, 1962) or by the King’s College Hospital instrument (Richardson, 1973).