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The term ‘hypertrophy’ means an abnormal growth (eg, cardiac hypertrophy is understood as an abnormal growth of cardiac mass due to an increase in the size of myocytes). A second meaning of the term ‘physiological’ is, according to the dictionary, normal. Taking the above interpretations into consideration, we arrive at an amusing semantic incompatibility: cardiac physiological hypertrophy would mean ‘normal abnormal growth of the heart’. Authors who coined this term most likely intended to refer to cardiac hypertrophy achieved by physiological stimuli.
