Cor Triloculare Biauriculare: an Unusual Adult Heart.

Minor degrees of congenital malformation of the heart are fairly commonly discovered at Toutine post-mortem examinations and are compatible with normal life and age. Major degrees of congenital malformations are rarer and usually incompatible with long life. However, some who have lived to a good age are recorded. The earliest imperfect descriptions of bilocular hearts are by Pozzi in 1673 and Lanzoni ;in 1676. The first fully described case is by Wilson in 1798; he lived for seven days. Many cases have since been described, and Peacock (1866) collected ten. Six cases have been described during this century alone, while Maude Abbott (1927) in her series of 850 autopsies collected seven. The highest recorded age is 16 (Rudolf, 1899). Trilocular hearts are commoner, the bi-auricular being much more common and more favourable to life. The earliest recorded case is by Chemineau (1699). In Abbott's series fifteen cases are recorded, and there are many more individual reports. Peacock (1866) records the oldest age as 24. In Abbott's series, 35 years for bi-auricular and 31 years for biventricular are given as the maximum ages, but Young (1907) records one, aged 39, and Hedinger (1915) one, aged 56 years. A common arterial trunk or persistent truncus arteriosus in conjunction with the above abnormalities is even rarer. Only 23 cases have been recorded (Abbott, 1927), and the maximum age recorded by Abbott is 12 years. Vierordt (1898) records one at 16 and another at 19 years. The following is an extract from the General Register of Deaths in England and Wales, where congenital heart disease was certified to be the primary cause.