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Causes
By Mayo Clinic staff
Most of the time, the cause of the cardiomyopathy is unknown. In some people, however, doctors are able to identify some contributing factors. Possible causes of cardiomyopathy include:
- Long-term high blood pressure
- Heart valve problems
- Heart tissue damage from a previous heart attack
- Chronic rapid heart rate
- Metabolic disorders, such as thyroid disease or diabetes
- Nutritional deficiencies of essential vitamins or minerals, such as thiamin (vitamin B-1), selenium, calcium and magnesium
- Pregnancy
- Excessive use of alcohol over many years
- Abuse of cocaine or antidepressant medications, such as tricyclic antidepressants
- Use of some chemotherapy drugs to treat cancer
- Certain viral infections, which may injure the heart and trigger cardiomyopathy
Hemochromatosis is a disorder in which your body doesn't properly metabolize iron, causing it to build up in various organs, including your heart muscle. This can lead to a weakening of the heart muscle, resulting in dilated cardiomyopathy.
The three types of cardiomyopathy are:
- Dilated cardiomyopathy. This is the most common type of cardiomyopathy. In this disorder, your heart's main pumping chamber — the left ventricle — becomes enlarged (dilated), its pumping ability becomes less forceful, and blood doesn't flow as easily through 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. Some people with dilated cardiomyopathy may have a family history of the condition.
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This type involves abnormal growth or thickening of your heart muscle, particularly affecting the muscle of your heart's main pumping chamber. As thickening occurs, the heart tends to stiffen and the size of the pumping chamber may shrink, interfering with your heart's ability to deliver blood to your body. 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. The heart muscle in people with restrictive cardiomyopathy becomes rigid and less elastic, meaning the heart can't properly expand and fill with blood between heartbeats. While restrictive cardiomyopathy can occur at any age, it most often tends to affect older people. It's the least common type of cardiomyopathy and can occur for no known reason (idiopathic). The condition may also be caused by diseases elsewhere in the body that affect the heart, such as amyloidosis, a rare condition in which abnormal proteins present in the blood are deposited into the heart.
