Heart lipomatosis in domestic animals: a review

Abstract

Heart lipomatosis represents a group of diseases leading to fatty tissue changes and their accumulation in the heart. Though the morbidity is relatively low, fatty changes are believed to take part in many processes that can cause death, and in fact fatty tissue is a normal component in healthy human and animal hearts. Several diseases that produce fatty changes in human hearts may possibly cause the same syndromes in animals but many of these conditions remain undiscovered. The aim of this paper is to review the typical conditions leading to fatty changes in human hearts and to delineate their relationship with animal pathologies.