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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffDilated cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle, primarily affecting your heart's main pumping chamber (left ventricle). The left ventricle becomes enlarged (dilated) and can't pump blood to your body with as much force as a healthy heart can.
Dilated cardiomyopathy doesn't necessarily cause symptoms, but for some people the disease is life-threatening. Dilated cardiomyopathy is a common cause of heart failure, the inability of the heart to supply the body's tissue and organs with enough blood. Dilated cardiomyopathy may also cause irregular heartbeats (arrhythmia), blood clots or sudden death.
Dilated cardiomyopathy may affect people of all ages, including infants and children, but it's most often diagnosed in middle age.
- Cardiomyopathy. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/cm/cm_all.html. Accessed July 14, 2009.
- Cooper LT. Definition and classification of the cardiomyopathies. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 14, 2009.
- 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.
- Weigner M, et al. Causes of dilated cardiomyopathy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 14, 2009.
- Hershberger RE. Genetics of dilated cardiomyopathy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 14, 2009.
- 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 July 14, 2009.
- Heart failure. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/Hf/HF_All.html. Accessed July 14, 2009.
- 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.
