Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Essay

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an inherited disease that affects the cardiac muscle of the heart, causing the walls of the heart to thicken and become stiff. [1] On a cellular level, the sarcomere

Systolic heart failure is characterized by enlarged ventricles that are unable to fully contract to pump enough blood into circulation to adequately perfuse tissues. The enlargement in ventricles is due to an increased end-systolic volume. If the heart is not able to sufficiently pump the expected volume of blood with each contraction, which in a normal healthy heart is 50-60%, there will be a residual volume left in the heart after every pump (Heart Healthy Women, 2012). With the next period of filling, the heart will receive the same amount of blood volume from the atria combined with that residual volume from the previous contraction. This causes the ventricles to have to dilate to accommodate this increase in volume. The dilation causes the walls of the ventricles to stretch and become thin and weak. Also the myocardium, the muscle layer of the heart, will stretch and not be able to adequately make a full and forceful enough contraction to push blood from the ventricles (Lehne, 2010).

As this disease progresses and the workload of the heart is consistently increased, ventricular hypertrophy occurs. At first, the hypertrophied heart muscles will increase contractility, thus increasing cardiac output; however, as hypertrophy of the ventricular myocardial cells continues, it begins to have poor contractility, requires more oxygen to perform, and has poor circulation from the coronary arteries. This can result in heart tissue ischemia and lead into cardiac dysrhythmias (Lewis et al. 2014, 768).

Young children who have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy tend to have no symptoms of their condition until

Cardiac hypertrophy is the enlargement, or thickening, of the heart muscle. After lots of strenuous exercise the heart muscle will increase. If a person does exercise, a thirty minute jog every day, for six months there will be an obvious increase in many other factors but the heart muscles will have grown in size. These changes are reversible when you discontinue aerobic training.

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy was first acknowledged in Japan in 1990 by Sato et al (Djuric 512). The United States did not have any report of Takotsubo until 1998 (Sharkey e460). Since 1998, scientific interest in Takotsubo has steadily increased. Dr. Scott Sharkey validates the increase in scientific interest: “In 2000, only 2 publications were recorded, compared with nearly 300 in 2010. Now, takotsubo is widely recognized, with reports form 6 continents and diverse countries” (e460).

Right ventricular hypertrophy is where the muscle of the right ventricle is thicker than usual and causes the heart to work harder than normal to move blood through the narrowed pulmonary valve.

Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) is defined as a serious heart condition that prevents the heart from providing adequate blood flow to other parts of the body, causing a buildup of fluids in organs such as the lungs and kidneys (Heart Disease and Congestive Heart Failure). This heart condition affects approximately 670,000 people a year and is one of the leading causes of death for older people (Heart Disease and Congestive Heart Failure). Congestive heart failure, a chronic heart condition, manifests itself by causing fatigue, shortness of breath and edema; consequently, the treatments are basic and there remains no cure.

HF is a complex clinical syndrome with a constant increasing incidence and prevalence in western countries in the 21st century and has been a major cause of morbidity, mortality, hospitalizations and disability. People who develop HF have (or had) another heart condition

Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle. It is where the ventricular structure is impaired. The heart muscle

Congestive heart failure is when the heart weakens and the heart cannot pump enough blood to the body, or enough oxygen to the lungs. The picture shows a healthy heart and the proper flow and a heart that has the condition congestive heart failure. You can see that the heart on the left is slightly bigger in a sense. The condition narrows the arteries in the heart causing it hard to pump blood throughout the body. The symptoms of CHF: shortness of breath when laying down, fatique and weakness, edema (swelling of any organ or body

HCM happens when the heart muscle enlarges and thickens without an obvious cause. Usually the ventricles, the lower chambers of the heart, and septum thicken. The thickened areas create narrowing or blockages in the ventricles, making it harder for the heart to pump blood; however, in very few instances the heart actually contracts with much greater force causing an obstruction to the blood flow (CMUK, 2015). HCM also can cause stiffness of the ventricles, changes in the mitral valve, and cellular changes in the heart tissue.

Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a type of heart disease in which the chambers of the heart increase in size and the muscle walls thin; the relative thinness of the heart’s walls, compared to the dilated size of the heart, leads to a weakened ability to pump blood to the rest of the body (3). DCM affects one out of 2500 people each year (4) and is one of the leading causes of heart failure in young adults (5). Diagnosis of this disease is difficult because its symptoms are not severe or debilitating, and diagnosis – taking a biopsy of the heart – is often invasive and risky (2); not as many people are being diagnosed with it as the number of those who have it. This limited sample size inhibits the study of

Cardiac hypertrophy is the enlargement of the lower, ventricular walls of the heart. Most commonly occurring in the left ventricular side, cardiac hypertrophy can occur on one side or both. Characterized by abnormal heart muscle growth it can be a healthy response to pregnancy or exercise. However, an increase in heart size could also be a sign of hypertension, diabetes, muscular dystrophy, obesity, or cardiomyopathy. Hypertrophy of the heart can be adaptive or maladaptive, therefore the growth may not lead to an increase in cardiac output.

Due to research being active but at a leisurely pace, diagnosis is falling further behind than many other conditions found in children. Many children that possess this heart condition appear healthy and active, they tend not to show symptoms and it goes undetected if there is no record of family history (“Understanding Pediatric” 2). With this being known it just makes it that much more difficult to diagnose and attempt to start a treatment. “Pediatric cardiomyopathy may be diagnosed based upon a thorough clinical evaluation, identification of characteristic physical findings, a complete patient and family history, and a variety of specialized tests” (“Pediatric Cardiomyopathy” 7). An overly adequate amount of work is involved in diagnosing