Current perspectives on the diagnosis and management of dilated cardiomyopathy Beyond heart failure: a Cardiomyopathy Clinic Doctor's point of view.

Current perspectives on the diagnosis and management of dilated cardiomyopathy Beyond heart failure: a Cardiomyopathy Clinic Doctor's point of view. Hellenic J Cardiol. 2018 May 25;: Authors: Bakalakos A, Ritsatos K, Anastasakis A Abstract Left ventricular enlargement and dysfunction are fundamental components of dilated cardiomyopathy. Dilated cardiomyopathy is a major cause of heart failure and cardiac transplantation. A wide variety of etiologies underlie acquired and familial DCM. Familial disease is reported in 20% to 35% of cases. A genetic substrate is recognized in at least 30% of familial cases. A recently proposed scheme, defines DCM as a continuum of subclinical and clinical phenotypes. The evolution of classification systems permitted use of effective treatment strategies in disorders sharing same structural and functional characteristics and common clinical expression. Major causes of death are progressive heart failure and sudden cardiac death secondary to ventricular arrhythmias or less commonly bradyarrhythmias. Remarkable progress has been made in survival due to well defined evidence based therapies and appropriate guidelines for risk stratification and sudden cardiac death prevention measures. Neurohormonal antagonists and device therapy decreased all-cause mortality in adult DCM patients. However additional red flags in diagnosis have to be addressed in every day practice and cardiologists have to be aware of the ...
Source: Hellenic Journal of Cardiology - Category: Cardiology Tags: Hellenic J Cardiol Source Type: research