An extensive body of evidence supports the concept that cardiac hypertrophy and normal
cardiac growth develop in response to increased hemodynamic loading and abnormal
systolic and diastolic stresses at the myocardial fiber level. The pattern of hypertrophy
reflects the nature of the inciting stress. Experimental studies indicate that if the stress is
moderate, gradually applied, and the animal young and healthy, physiologic hypertrophy of
muscle with normal contractility develops. In this circumstance, cardiac hypertrophy may be …