Cardiomyopathy
Cardiomyopathy is the deterioration of the cardiac muscle of the heart wall.
Cardiomyopathy can lead to heart failure as the pumping efficiency of the heart is diminished. People with cardiomyopathy are often at risk of arrhythmia and/or sudden cardiac death.
Cardiomyopathies can generally be categorized into two groups: ischemic cardiomyopathy and nonischemic cardiomyopathy.
Ischemic cardiomyopathy is weakness in the muscle of the heart due to coronary artery disease. Individuals with ischemic cardiomyopathy typically have a history of myocardial infarction (heart attack).
Nonischemic
Nonischemic cardiomyopathy is weakness in the muscle of the heart that is not due to coronary artery disease. To make a diagnosis of nonischemic cardiomyopathy, significant coronary artery disease should be ruled out. The term nonischemic cardiomyopathy does not describe the etiology of weakened heart muscle. The nonischemic cardiomyopathies are a mixed-bag of disease states, each with their own causes.
Nonischemic cardiomyopathy has a number of causes including drug and alcohol toxicity, certain infections, and various genetic and idiopathic (i.e. unknown) causes.
Nonischemic subtypes
There are four main types of nonischemic cardiomyopathy:
- Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), the most common form of cardiomyopathy, and one of the leading indications for heart transplantation. In DCM the heart (especially the left ventricle) is enlarged and weakened. Approximately 40% of cases are familial, but the genetics are poorly understood compared with HCM. It is associated with alcoholism.
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM or HOCM), a genetic disorder caused by various mutations in genes encoding sarcomeric proteins. In HCM the heart muscle is thickened, which can obstruct blood flow and prevent the heart from functioning properly.
- Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) arises from an electrical disturbance of the heart in which heart muscle is replaced by fibrous scar tissue. The right ventricle is generally most affected.
- Restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCM) is the least common cardiomyopathy. The walls of the ventricles are stiff, but may not be thickened, and resist the normal filling of the heart with blood. A rare form of restrictive cardiomyopathy is the obliterative cardiomyopathy, seen in the hypereosinophilic syndrome. In this type of cardiomyopathy, the myocardium in the apicies of the left and right ventricles become thickened and fibrotic, causing a decrease in the volumes of the ventricles and a type of restrictive cardiomyopathy.
Cardiomyopathy may also be related to Hepatitis C virus infection.
Treatment for non-ischemic cardiomyopathy
- Standard treatment includes medical therapy and biventricular pacemaker. However, neither of these treatments improve the condition enough to prevent the need for an eventual heart transplant.
- Alternative treatment using adult stem cells is commercially available outside the United States[1] for certain types of non-ischemic cardiomyopathy including idiopathic. Patients such as Jeannine Lewis[2], have traveled to Thailand to receive stem cell therapy for idopathic cardiomyopathy and have shown dramatic improvement[3]. Dr. Amit Patel of the University of Pittsburgh McGowen Institute for Regenerative Medicine[4] is one of the leaders in stem cell therapy for heart disease. Dr. Patel, pioneered the minimally invasive thorascopic injection technique used to implant the cells, which were harvested from a small amount of Mrs. Lewis' own blood, directly into her heart.