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Oreste Baratto, MD; Gerald E. Muehsam, MD

JAMA. 1968;203(4):293-295.

Abstract
There is a well known clinical impression that the heart appears small on chest roentgenograms of persons with pulmonary emphysema. The cardiac measurements from chest x-ray films as well as the cardiac weight at autopsy of patients with uncomplicated emphysema were compared with the roentgenographic measurements of the hearts of normal controls and the heart weights of another group of control patients without emphysema. It was found that the heart weights of nondebilitated patients dying with emphysema were similar to those of nonemphysematous, nondebilitated controls. The transverse cardiac measurements in the group with emphysema, however, were significantly smaller than those of the controls.

Author Affiliations
From the Ewing Heart Unit of the Hospital Center at Orange.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to 120 Irvington Ave, South Orange, NJ 07079 (Dr. Muehsam).

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