A strange complex of diffuse congenital cardiovascular disease and cardiomyopathy, with localised myocardial calcification

This unique case is of a man, followed clinically since infancy, who had a ventricular septal defect which closed spontaneously, a small arterial duct , and a minor degree of aortic coarctation, all without obvious symptoms. H e later developed progressive cardiac failure which was attributed to some obscure form of congenital cardiomyopathy. He died at the age of 45 years. Necropsy showed a grossly abnormal arrangement of ventricular myocardial fa scicles and bands, with absence of the papillary muscles causing tricuspid and mitral regurgitation. The various malformations are considered to be a gross example of a diffuse congenital cardiovascular disease complex, to th e best of our knowledge previously undescribed.