Cardiomyopathy

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Cardiomyopathy is a group of diseases affecting the heart muscle. At the beginning there may be little or no symptoms. Some people may experience shortness of breath, feel tired, or experience swelling of the feet due to heart failure. An irregular heartbeat can occur as well as fainting. Those affected are at an increased risk of sudden cardiac death.

Types of cardiomyopathy include hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, restrictive cardiomyopathy, right ventricular artermogenic dysplasia, and takotubo cardiomyopathy (broken heart syndrome). In hypertrophic cardiomyopathy the heart muscle enlarges and thickens. In dilated cardiomyopathy, the ventricle is enlarged and weakened. In restrictive cardiomyopathy, the ventricles tighten.

The cause is often unknown. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is usually inherited, while dilated cardiomyopathy is inherited in one-third of cases. Dilated cardiomyopathy may also occur due to alcohol, heavy metals, coronary heart disease, cocaine use, and viral infections. Restrictive cardiomyopathy can be caused by amyloidosis, haemochromatosis, and some cancer treatments. Broken heart syndrome is caused by extreme emotional or physical pressure.

Treatment depends on the type of cardiomyopathy and the severity of the symptoms. Treatment may include lifestyle changes, medications, or surgery. By 2015 cardiomyopathy and myocarditis affect 2.5 million people. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy affects about 1 in 500 people while dilated cardiomyopathy affects 1 in 2,500. They produced 354,000 deaths up from 294,000 in 1990. Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia is more common in young people.

Video Cardiomyopathy

Signs and symptoms

Symptoms of cardiomyopathy may include fatigue, swelling of the lower extremities and shortness of breath. Further indications of this condition may include:

• Arrhythmia
• Faint
• Dizzy

Maps Cardiomyopathy

Cause

Cardiomyopathies are either confined to the heart or are part of a common systemic disorder, both of which often lead to cardiovascular death or disabilities associated with progressive heart failure. Other diseases that cause cardiac muscle dysfunction are excluded, such as coronary artery disease, hypertension, or heart valve abnormalities. Often, the underlying cause remains unknown, but in many cases the cause can be identified. Alcoholism, for example, has been identified as a cause of dilated cardiomyopathy, such as drug toxicity, and certain infections (including Hepatitis C). Untreated celiac disease can lead to cardiomyopathy, which can be completely backed up with a timely diagnosis. In addition to the causes obtained, molecular biology and genetics have led to the recognition of various genetic causes.

A more clinical categorization of cardiomyopathy as 'hypertrophy', 'dilatation', or 'limited', has become difficult to sustain as some conditions can satisfy more than one of the three categories at each stage of development. The definition of the American Heart Association currently divides the cardiomyopathy into primary, which affects the heart only, and secondary, which is the result of a disease affecting other parts of the body. These categories are further broken down into subgroups that combine knowledge of new genetic and molecular biology.

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Mechanism

Symptoms may include shortness of breath after physical activity, fatigue, and swelling of the feet, legs, or abdomen. In addition, arrhythmias and chest pain may be present.

Pathophysiology of cardiomyopathy is better understood at the cellular level with advances in molecular techniques. Mutant proteins may interfere with cardiac function in the contractile apparatus (or the mechanositive complex). Changes in cardiomyocytes and their persistent responses at the cellular level lead to changes that correlate with sudden cardiac death and other heart problems.

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Diagnosis

Among the diagnostic procedures performed to determine cardiomyopathy are:

• Physical check
• Family history
• Blood test
• ECG
• Echocardiogram
• Pressure test
• Genetic test

Classification

Cardiomyopathies can be classified using different criteria:

• Primary/intrinsic cardiomyopathy
  • Genetic
    • Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
    • Right ventricular arithmogenic cardiomyopathy (ARVC)
    • non-compact LV
    • Ion Channelopathies
    • Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM)
    • Restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCM)
  • Acquired
    • Stress cardiomyopathy
    • Myocarditis, inflammation and injury to the heart tissue due in part to infiltration by lymphocytes and monocytes
    • Eosinophilic myocarditis, inflammation and injury to the heart tissue due in part to its infiltration by eosinophils
    • Ischemic cardiomyopathy (not included formally in the classification as a direct result of other heart problems)
• Secondary/extrinsic cardiomy
  • Metabolic/storage
    • Fabry's Disease
    • hemochromatosis
  • Endomyokardial
    • Endomyokardial fibrosis
    • Hypereosinophilic syndrome
  • Endocrine
    • diabetes mellitus
    • hyperthyroidism
    • acromegaly
  • Cardiofacial
    • Noonan Syndrome
  • Neuromuscular
    • muscular dystrophy
    • Friedreich's ataxia
  • More
    • Obesity-related cardiomyopathy

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Treatment

• Cardiomyopathy and Curlie (based on DMOZ)

Source of the article : Wikipedia