Heart Beat: Checks recommended for relatives of people with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Heart Beat: Checks recommended for relatives of people with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy

Heart Beat

Checks recommended for relatives of people with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy

The most common cause of heart failure is something called dilated cardiomyopathy — the weakening and enlargement of one or both of the heart’s lower chambers (ventricles). As the ventricles become big and flabby, they have increasing trouble pumping enough blood to meet the body’s needs.

High blood pressure, viral infections, heavy drinking, drug abuse, and dozens of other causes can lead to dilated cardiomyopathy. Most of the time, though, it can’t be ascribed to a particular cause. Such cases are called idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.

Given that the disease seems to run in families, the American Heart Association suggests that first- and second-degree relatives (parents, brothers, sisters, children, grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, nephews, and nieces) of people who have idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, or who have died from it, be tested to see if they, too, have the disease. Research backs up that recommendation.

The study, published in the July 19, 2005, Annals of Internal Medicine, included more than 700 relatives of 189 people with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. Echocardiograms and other tests revealed that 23% of the relatives had heart abnormalities that could lead to cardiomyopathy, even though they had no symptoms of heart failure. During about five years of annual exams, people with an abnormality had a 10% chance of progressing to full-blown idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, while those who didn’t have an abnormality had only about a 1% chance of doing so.

If you have a close relative with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, talk to your doctor about being tested for the disease, usually with an echocardiogram. If you have signs of it, taking an ACE inhibitor may keep the condition at bay.

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Last updated:	August 21, 2006

Medical content reviewed by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School. Harvard Health Publications, Copyright © 2007 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Used with permission of StayWell.

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