Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, is a disease of the myocardium (the muscle of the heart) in which a portion of the myocardium is hypertrophied (thickened) without any obvious cause.1 It is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young athletes in the United States.2

Related Topics:
Myocardium - Muscle - Heart - Hypertrophied - Sudden cardiac death - United States

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A cardiomyopathy is any disease that primarily affects the muscle of the heart. In HCM, the normal alignment of muscle cells is disrupted, a phenomenon known as myocardial disarray. HCM also causes disruptions of the electrical functions of the heart. HCM is believed to be due to a mutation in one of many genes that results in a mutated myosin heavy chain, one of the components of the myocyte (the muscle cell of the heart). Depending on the degree of obstruction of the outflow of blood from the left ventricle of the heart, HCM can be defined as obstructive or non-obstructive.

Related Topics:
Cardiomyopathy - Myocardial disarray - Gene - Myocyte - Blood - Left ventricle

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HCM is also known as idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis (IHSS) and hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM). A non-obstructive variant of HCM is apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy 3, which is also known as nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and Japanese variant hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (since the first cases described were all in individuals of Japanese descent).

Related Topics:
Idiopathic - Japanese

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While most literature so far focuses on European, American, and Japanese populations, HCM appears in all racial groups. The incidence of HCM is about 0.2% to 0.5% of the general population.

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