Don’t fight Cardiomyopathy alone.
Find your community on the free RareGuru App.Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle that makes it harder for your heart to pump blood to the rest of your body. Cardiomyopathy can lead to heart failure.
The main types of cardiomyopathy include dilated, hypertrophic and restrictive cardiomyopathy. Treatment — which might include medications, surgically implanted devices or, in severe cases, a heart transplant — depends on which type of cardiomyopathy you have and how serious it is.
The information on this page is sourced from The Mayo Clinic.
Source: GARD Last updated on 05-01-20
There might be no signs or symptoms in the early stages of cardiomyopathy. But as the condition advances, signs and symptoms usually appear, including:
Signs and symptoms tend to get worse unless treated. In some people, the condition worsens quickly; in others, it might not worsen for a long time.
See your doctor if you have one or more signs or symptoms associated with cardiomyopathy. Call 911 or your local emergency number if you have severe difficulty breathing, fainting or chest pain that lasts for more than a few minutes.
Because some types of cardiomyopathy can be hereditary, if you have it your doctor might advise that your family members be checked.
Last updated on 05-01-20
Often the cause of the cardiomyopathy is unknown. In some people, however, it's the result of another condition (acquired) or passed on from a parent (inherited).
Contributing factors for acquired cardiomyopathy include:
Types of cardiomyopathy include:
Dilated cardiomyopathy. In this type of cardiomyopathy, the pumping ability of your heart's main pumping chamber — the left ventricle — becomes enlarged (dilated) and can't effectively pump blood out of the heart.
Although this type can affect people of all ages, it occurs most often in middle-aged people and is more likely to affect men. The most common cause is coronary artery disease or heart attack.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This type involves abnormal thickening of your heart muscle, particularly affecting the muscle of your heart's main pumping chamber (left ventricle). The thickened heart muscle can make it harder for the heart to work properly.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy can develop at any age, but the condition tends to be more severe if it becomes apparent during childhood. Most affected people have a family history of the disease, and some genetic mutations have been linked to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Restrictive cardiomyopathy. In this type, the heart muscle becomes rigid and less elastic, so it can't expand and fill with blood between heartbeats. This least common type of cardiomyopathy can occur at any age, but it most often affects older people.
Restrictive cardiomyopathy can occur for no known reason (idiopathic), or it can by caused by a disease elsewhere in the body that affects the heart, such as when iron builds up in the heart muscle (hemochromatosis).
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia. In this rare type of cardiomyopathy, the muscle in the lower right heart chamber (right ventricle) is replaced by scar tissue, which can lead to heart rhythm problems. It's often caused by genetic mutations.
Unclassified cardiomyopathy. Other types of cardiomyopathy fall into this category.
There are a number of factors that can increase your risk of cardiomyopathy, including:
Cardiomyopathy can lead to other heart conditions, including:
In many cases, you can't prevent cardiomyopathy. Let your doctor know if you have a family history of the condition.
You can help reduce your chance of cardiomyopathy and other types of heart disease by living a heart-healthy lifestyle and making lifestyle choices such as:
Last updated on 05-01-20
Your doctor will conduct a physical examination, take a personal and family medical history, and ask when your symptoms occur — for example, whether exercise brings on your symptoms. If your doctor thinks you have cardiomyopathy, you might need to undergo several tests to confirm the diagnosis, including:
Cardiac catheterization. A thin tube (catheter) is inserted into your groin and threaded through your blood vessels to your heart. Doctors might extract a small sample (biopsy) of your heart for analysis in the laboratory. Pressure within the chambers of your heart can be measured to see how forcefully blood pumps through your heart.
Doctors might inject a dye into your blood vessels so that they show on X-rays (coronary angiogram). This test can be used to ensure there are no blockages in your blood vessels.
Blood tests. Several blood tests might be done, including those to check your kidney, thyroid and liver function, and to measure your iron levels.
One blood test can measure B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), a protein produced in your heart. Your blood level of BNP might rise when your heart is in heart failure, a common complication of cardiomyopathy.
Last updated on 05-01-20
The goals of cardiomyopathy treatment are to manage your signs and symptoms, prevent your condition from worsening, and reduce your risk of complications. Treatment varies by which type of cardiomyopathy you have.
Your doctor might prescribe medications to improve your heart's pumping ability, improve blood flow, lower blood pressure, slow your heart rate, remove excess fluid from your body or keep blood clots from forming.
Be sure to discuss possible side effects with your doctor before taking any of these drugs.
Several types of devices can be placed in the heart to improve its function and relieve symptoms, including:
Other procedures used to treat cardiomyopathy or arrhythmia include:
Types of surgery used to treat cardiomyopathy include:
These lifestyle changes can help you manage cardiomyopathy:
Last updated on 05-01-20
Note, these links are external searches against the National Laboratory of Medicine's drug database. You may need to adjust the search if there are no results found.
Drug Name | Generic Name |
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Ablysinol | dehydrated alcohol |
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