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Massively enlarged heart

Look at the size of this massively enlarged heart! The size of a football! An enlarged heart, or cardiomegaly, is the term used to describe a heart that has a thickened wall or dilated chambers. Having a heart that is enlarged is not a disease but a symptom of an underlying medical condition. This is a cardiomegaly at autopsy in a young male who died from complications of morbid obesity, diabetes, and congestive heart failure. The normal male heart should fit in your hand, while this heart is 2-3x the normal size. There's a direct association of adiposity with left ventricular dysfunction, independent of hypertension, coronary artery disease and other heart diseases such as atrial or ventricular septal defects, mitral regurgitation and aortic stenosis, both leading to enlarged left ventricle and subsequent failure. Obesity produces an increase in total blood volume and cardiac output because of the high metabolic activity of excessive fat. Eventually, the heart grows larger to compensate for the larger body.