Repositorio Académico

Several factors can influence the weight of the thoracic and/or abdominal viscera. In order to know the average weight of the heart and lungs of Chilean individuals, information of these organs was obtained from 775 necropsies of fresh cadavers, between 2009-2013, considering ethnicity (non-Mapuche and Mapuche), age, sex and body mass index. We studied organs without apparent injury or disease. When considering age, the average heart weight showed an increase in both ethnic groups and both sexes. This increase was similar in male individuals from both ethnic groups, with a value of 13%. In female individuals there was an increase of 36% in the Mapuche ethnic group, while that of non- Mapuche was 8%. With regard to the lungs, there was no increase in their average weight in male individuals of Mapuche group, in females however, the increase was about 40%. Among the group of 20–29 years and 30–39 y, both lungs increased their average weights at 35%. In the non-Mapuche group, in both sexes, the average weight of these organs increased by less than 10%. These results are compared with other population groups in the world and are a contribution to morphological knowledge of the thoracic viscera. © 2014 Universidad de la Frontera. All rights reserved.