Characteristics of Hearts at Necropsy in Patients Treated Chronically With Prednisone (The Corticosteroid Heart).

It is known that long-term corticosteroid therapy increases fatty deposits in several human tissues. To quantify the quantity of fatty deposits in the heart in patients on prednisone, we examined the heart at necropsy in 37 patients who had received long-term corticosteroid therapy (prednisone in 34) and compared certain findings in them to those in 194 (steroid-naïve) patients also studied at necropsy at Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, in a 3-year period (2013, 2014, and 2015). Significant differences between the 2 groups were found in age, gender, and frequency of coronary artery disease but not in body mass index, frequency of massive cardiac adiposity, heart weight, or frequency of systemic hypertension or diabetes mellitus. Furthermore, no significant differences were observed in the patients taking ≤20 mg versus those taking >20 mg daily of prednisone. In conclusion, this study observed no significant differences in body mass index, frequency of cardiac adiposity (floating heart), heart weight, or frequencies of systemic hypertension or diabetes mellitus in the patients receiving or not receiving prednisone for a long term, but the prednisone-treated patients were younger, more often women, and had a lower frequency of severe narrowing of ≥1 major coronary arteries.