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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staff
Cardiomyopathy (kahr-dee-oh-my-OP-uh-thee) is a disease that weakens and enlarges your heart muscle. There are three main types of cardiomyopathy — dilated, hypertrophic and restrictive — all of which affect your heart muscle. Cardiomyopathy makes it harder for your heart to pump blood and deliver it to the rest of your body. There are many causes of cardiomyopathy, including coronary artery disease and valvular heart disease. Cardiomyopathy can lead to heart failure.
Cardiomyopathy can be treated. The type of treatment you'll receive depends on which type of cardiomyopathy you have and how serious it is. Your treatment may include medications, surgically implanted devices or, in severe cases, a heart transplant.
- Cardiomyopathy. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4468. Accessed Jan. 20, 2010.
- Cardiomyopathy. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/cm/cm_all.html. Accessed Jan. 20, 2010.
- Maron BJ, et al. Contemporary definitions and classification of the cardiomyopathies: An American Heart Association scientific statement from the Council on Clinical Cardiology, Heart Failure and Transplantation Committee; Quality of Care and Outcomes Research and Functional Genomics and Translational Biology Interdisciplinary Working Groups; and Council on Epidemiology and Prevention. Circulation. 2006;113:1807.
- Hare JM. The dilated, restrictive and infiltrative cardiomyopathies. In Libby P. Braunwald's Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine. 8th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/book/player/book.do?method=display&type=bookPage&decorator=header&eid=4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-4106-1..50067-4&uniq=151686941&isbn=978-1-4160-4106-1&sid=867495152#lpState=open&lpTab=contentsTab&content=4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-4106-1..X5001-8--TOP%3Bfrom%3Dcontent%3Bisbn%3D978-1-4160-4106-1%3Btype%3DbookHome. Accessed July 14, 2009.
- Cooper LT. Definition and classification of the cardiomyopathies. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 20, 2010.
- Heart failure. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/Hf/HF_All.html. Accessed Jan. 20, 2010.
- Restrictive cardiomyopathy. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/1181919434962Restrictive%20Cardiomyopathy_2007.pdf. Accessed Jan. 20, 2010.
- Sorajja P, et al. Outcome of alcohol septal ablation for obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Circulation. 2008;118:131.
- Podrid PJ, et al. Secondary and primary prevention of sudden cardiac death in heart failure and cardiomyopathies. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 20, 2010.
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