Clinical and morphological aspects of heart injury diagnostics

The article presents recent data on clinical and morphofunctional changes developing due to the injury of the heart. The estimation methods of clinical examination of victims, laboratory data and autopsy diagnosis of this type of cardiac injury are assessed. For timely clinical diagnosis of cardiac contusion, it is essential to identify injury-related arrhythmogenic conditions and heart rate disorders, as well as increased level of cardiac troponins in plasma, reduced ejection fraction and increased left ventricular volume. Morphological evaluation of cardiac contusion should be based on the detected injuries of the chest and locus of heart muscle damage. Of great importance for diagnostics are multiple subsegmentary contractures, loci of relaxation and dissociation of muscle fibers in combination with prevalent intramural hemorrhage, response of microcirculatory vessels with a specific slow of blood flow and erythrocyte aggregation.