title: Postmortem heart weight: relation to body size and effects of cardiovascular disease and cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Gender, body weight, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are all variables known to influence human heart weight. The impact of cancer is less studied, and the influence of age is not unequivocal. We aimed to describe the relationship between body size and heart weight in a large autopsy cohort and to compare heart weight in patients with cancer, CVD, and other diseases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Registered information, including cause of death, evidence of cancer and/or CVD, heart weight, body weight, and height, was extracted from the autopsy reports of 1410 persons (805 men, mean age 66.5 years and 605 women, mean age 70.6 years). The study population was divided in four groups according to cause of death; cancer (n=349), CVD (n=470), mixed group who died from cancer and CVD and/or lung disease (n=263), and a reference group with patients who did not die from any of these conditions (n=328). In this last group, heart weight correlated only slightly better with body surface area than body weight, and nomograms based on body weight are presented. Compared to the reference group (mean heart weight: 426 g and 351 g in men and women, respectively), heart weight was significantly lower (men: P<.05, women: P<.001) in cancer patients (men: 392 g, women: 309 g) and higher (P<.001) in patients who died from CVD (men: 550 g, women: 430 g). Similar results were obtained in linear regression models adjusted for body weight and age. Among CVD, heart valve disease had the greatest impact on heart weight, followed by old myocardial infarction, coronary atherosclerosis, and hypertension. Absolute heart weight decreased with age, but we demonstrated an increase relative to body weight.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The weight of the human heart is influenced by various disease processes, in addition to body weight, gender, and age. While the most prevalent types of CVD are associated with increased heart weight, patients who die from cancer have lower average heart weight than other patient groups. The latter finding, however, is diminished when adjusting for body weight.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study demonstrates that the weight of the human heart is influenced by various disease processes like cancer and CVD, in addition to body weight, gender and, possibly, age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Oslo University Hospital-Ullevål, Kirkeveien 166, 0407 Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: n.t.kumar@medisin.uio.no.
authors.forename: Neena Theresa
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Knut
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liestøl
authors.forename: Else Marit
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Løberg
authors.forename: Henrik Mikael
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Reims
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mæhlen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001344:Autopsy; D001830:Body Surface Area; D001835:Body Weight; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D002423:Cause of Death; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D009929:Organ Size; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Autopsy; Body weight; Cancer; Cardiovascular diseases; Heart weight