OBSTRUCTIVE HYPERTROPHIC CARDIOMYOPATHY-Watsons Health

OBSTRUCTIVE HYPERTROPHIC CARDIOMYOPATHY

Overview & Facts

Hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy results in anomalous thickening of the myocardium, usually in the interventricular septum. HOCM can result to heart failure, dangerous arrhythmias, and sudden cardiovascular arrest.

In patients with HOCM, the myocardial muscle cells are anomalously thickened with transformations.The heart cells or myocytes are not ready to adjust to the pressure and demands of aging and other heart conditions, so they get substituted with fibrous tissue which can result to systolic heart failure, or “burnt out HOCM.”

Types & Symptoms

TYPES

SYMPTOMS

Signs and symptoms of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy may include at least one of the following:

  • Shortness of breath, particularly while exercising
  • Pain in chest
  • Fainting, during or soon after exercise
  • Palpitations
  • Heart murmur, which a doctor may identify while listening in to your heart

Diagnosis & Medications

DIAGNOSIS

The finding is made with echocardiography, which will show the hypertrophied interventricular septum.

The ECG in a patient with HOCM will demonstrate left ventricular hypertrophy. The finding is huge, blade like “septal Q waves” in the lower and horizontal leads due to the abnormal hypertrophied interventricular septum.

TREATMENT

Patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy have a high risk for sudden cardiovascular death but this can be prevented if you have the following treatments below while still in its early stages.

  • Medical treatment in the form of non-dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers, such as Disopyramide
  • Mechanical therapy
  • Surgical myectomy

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