The Cardiomyopathies

Abstract

Cardiomyopathies comprise a heterogeneous group of disease of the myocardium. The American Heart Association has proposed that cardiomyopathies are “myocardial diseases associated with mechanical and/or electrical dysfunction that usually—but not invariably—exhibit inappropriate ventricular hypertrophy or dilatation and are due to a variety of causes that are frequently genetic.” The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) has assumed that the clinically most useful method for diagnosing and managing the cardiomyopathies is a classification in which heart muscle diseases are grouped according to ventricular morphology and function. The ESC has defined cardiomyopathies as “myocardial disorders in which the heart muscle is structurally and functionally abnormal, in the absence of coronary artery disease, hypertension, valvular disease and congenital heart disease sufficient to cause the observed myocardial abnormality.” The ESC classification consists of the following categories: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, restrictive cardiomyopathy, and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.