Gynecomastia during Digitalis Therapy

Abstract

IN an earlier report¹ 6 male patients with breast changes that were interpreted as representing true gynecomastia were described. These men were receiving digitalis in various forms for the management of congestive heart failure. The structural similarity of the digitalis aglycones to the cyclopentanoperhydrophenanthrene radical of the steroidal hormones (Fig. 1) raised the question whether digitalis was itself responsible for the breast changes or whether hepatic insufficiency incident to myocardial failure or nutritional factors might have been the underlying causes.In the present communication 8 additional cases are reported, making a total of 14 cases. In addition, the results of . . .