What do you know about cardiomyopathy?
What is cardiomyopathy and what are its types?
What is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy?
What are the symptoms of cardiomyopathies?
If you want to know more about cardiomyopathies and their symptoms, if you are looking for information on the symptoms of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, read on.
what you will read next :
Types of cardiomyopathy
First, let’s see what is the meaning of cardiomyopathy in medicine?
- Cardiomyopathy is a compound term
- Cardio means heart
- Myo means muscle
And
- Pathy means disorder and problem
So, cardiomyopathy is a heart disorder that involves the heart muscle or myocardium (the muscular layer of the heart).
In cardiomyopathies, the heart is enlarged and the heart muscle or myocardium does not function normally.
In cardiomyopathy, the heart muscle cannot open well enough for blood to flow in, and it cannot contract properly, and send blood to the aorta to flow in the body’s arteries.
Depending on the type of cardiomyopathy and its severity, there will be treatments for the affected heart. medication, surgery, and in severe cases, a heart transplant is necessary.
Types of cardiomyopathy:
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
- Dilated cardiomyopathy
- Restrictive cardiomyopathy
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy:
Most people with the disease have a predisposing family factor. Doctors have linked a variety of mutations and genetic disorders to the development of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
The wall muscle of the heart, especially the left ventricular wall, which pumps blood into the aorta, becomes too thick, so the heart has to work very hard to contract the very thick muscle in its wall, so the blood is hardly pumped into the aorta.
If hypertrophic cardiomyopathy begins in childhood, it is very likely that the patient’s condition will become very serious.
In this article, we aim to talk about the symptoms of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
- Dilated cardiomyopathy:
The most common type of cardiomyopathy is this type.
Middle-aged people and men are more likely to develop this type of cardiomyopathy.
Family history, history of coronary heart disease, heart attack, chemotherapy and some viruses are some of the causes.
Alcohol will also increase the risk of developing this type of cardiomyopathy.
However, the cause often remains unknown.
In this type of heart muscle disorder, the left ventricle of the heart dilates too much and its wall becomes weak, and it loses the ability to pump blood into the aorta.
- Restrictive cardiomyopathy:
It has the lowest prevalence.
It affects older people most, and the cause is unknown.
Iron deposition in heart cells during hemochromatosis disorder
Deposition of abnormal proteins called amyloid in the heart muscle during amyloidosis.
The accumulation of a type of blood cell called eosinophil in the heart and autoimmune disorders such as sarcoidosis have been implicated in the development of this cardiomyopathy.
Due to the deposition of various substances in the heart muscle, the heart wall becomes hard and inflexible and cannot perform its normal movements.
There are some rare types of cardiomyopathy that we will not cover here.
statistics of Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or HCM for short
It is the most common non-hereditary cardiomyopathy.
It is one of the most important and common causes of disabilities due to cardiovascular disorders and one of the most common causes of death due to heart disease.
In the world community, two out of every thousand people in the world have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is 0.2% of the world’s population.
The primary type is due to genetic disorders.
In the acquired type, there is no family history and it is caused by causes such as valvular heart problems and high blood pressure and… and is often seen in men.
HCM is said to be the most common cause of sudden death in young athletes.
Causes of hcm
Often the exact cause is unknown.
But the following causes are among the effective causes:
- Long-term hypertension, chronic and uncontrolled hypertension
- Coronary heart disease
- Heart attacks
- Chronic valvular heart disease and disorders
- Cardiac arrhythmias in which there is a sharp increase in heart rate, ie chronic tachycardia or tachyarrhythmias
- Thyroid disorder
- Diabetes
- Severe malnutrition
- Calcium deficiency
- Magnesium deficiency
- Vitamin B deficiency or niacin
- Complications of pregnancy
- Alcoholism
medicines:
- Amphetamine
- Cocaine
- Amitriptyline
- Nortriptyline
- And in general, tricyclic antidepressants
- And some chemotherapy drugs
- Severe anemia
- Some viral infections
- Myopathies or muscle disorders that sometimes involve the heart, such as Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA or FA)
- Probably severe stress
Who is most at risk for HCM?
- People over forty years
- Smokers
- fat people
- People with diabetes
- People with chronic uncontrolled hypertension
- People with a history of heart attack
- People with a positive family history
- People with a history of chronic alcoholism
- Users of amphetamines, cocaine and marijuana
- People with high blood cholesterol
In hypertrophic cardiomyopathies, the left ventricular muscle will be greatly increased in thickness. As the thickness of the left ventricular wall increases, the space inside the left ventricular chamber will decrease and in addition, the thickened muscle cannot move like a normal healthy muscle, it cannot contract well and send blood out of the heart.
Therefore, a small amount of blood flow enters the aorta. Sometimes the thickness of the muscle at the site of the aortic valve also increases and stenosis of the aortic valve also occurs.
HCM symptoms
People with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy may not have specific clinical signs in the early stages of their disorder.
Gradually with the development of heart muscle disorders and problems, cardiomyopathy will also be symptomatic.
Symptoms will manifest:
- Fatigue
- Lightheadedness
- Dizziness
- Feeling of pressure and heaviness in the chest
- Chest pain
- Shortness of breath in the early stages only during activity
- Shortness of breath even at rest in advanced stages
- Fainting
- Cough
- Increased heart rate or tachycardia
- Swelling of the legs
- Swelling of the ankles
- Swelling of the abdomen due to fluid retention
Diagnosis
History, along with medication list and family history, along with cardiac examination, raises suspicion of cardiomyopathy in physician.
To prove it:
- Chest x-rays
- ECG or electrocardiogram
- heart echo
- Exercise test or treadmill test
- CT scan
- And
- Sometimes genetic tests
Are used.
Complications of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
- Heart failure that can limit the flow of blood out of the heart to the point where it becomes life-threatening.
- Heart attacks
- Clot formation in the heart and clot movement to the brain and stroke
- Heart valve failure (mitral valve insufficiency)
treatment
Treatment of cardiomyopathy is determined depending on the severity of the disorder and the symptoms and complications:
- medicines
- CRT implantation and heart transplantation
What can be done to prevent non-hereditary types of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy?
- Quit smoking
- Leave alcohol
- Diabetes control
- Control of high blood pressure
- Control of high blood fats
- Adequate sleep
- Reduce stress
And
- Having a healthy diet and regular exercise