Synonyms
Myocardial Disease, Cardiomyopathy Cardiomyopathy is one of the diseases of the heart muscle that are not necessarily caused by an undersupply of blood to the heart, valve defects or pericarditis. In cardiomyopathy, the heart muscle is primarily damaged and as a result, the heart’s function may be impaired. The dysfunction is usually the result of a structural change in the heart, in which the heart enlarges and cannot contract sufficiently to ensure sufficient ejection.
The heart can also thicken, which means that not enough blood can flow into the ventricle. The result of one or both of these structural changes can be called heart failure, where the amount of blood pumped is not sufficient to supply the organs adequately. The brain and lungs suffer particularly from this.
The WHO (World Health Organization) distinguishes 5 forms of cardiomyopathy. Hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyobathy (HOCM), restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCM), dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), right ventricular cardiomyopathy and cardiomyopathies whose cause is unknown or unclassified. In addition, a distinction is made between primary and secondary cardiomyopathies.
Primary cardiomyopathies are diseases that occur exclusively in the heart muscle, while secondary cardiomyopathies can be the result of an existing disease. Hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle in which the muscles of the left ventricle thicken (hypertrophy), especially the ventricular septum. Since the outflow tract of the left ventricle is also located here, there is an obstruction due to the increased muscle mass.
This outflow obstruction can ultimately cause clinical symptoms. In restrictive cardiomyopathy, the muscle tissue is stiffened and thus prevents the heart from filling up sufficiently with blood during the relaxation phase. The actual pumping function is not disturbed here.
In this case the heart only lacks the necessary blood volume. Dilated cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle in which the left, right or both chambers of the heart dilate. Due to the pathological dilatation of the heart chambers, the heart cannot contract effectively enough to transport the blood into the body’s circulation.
Right ventricular cardiomyopathy is characterized by a breakdown of the muscle cells in the right ventricle. These are then gradually replaced by fat cells and/or connective tissue cells and the heart loses important functional muscle cells. Unclassified cardiomyopathies cover heart muscle diseases that are very rare and difficult to distinguish from the more common cardiomyopathies.