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Heart, section through the middle
Heart, section through the middle
Heart, front view
Heart, front view
OverviewSymptomsTreatmentPrevention

Cardiomyopathy

Treatment:

While all types of cardiomyopathy can cause heart failure, each case requires specific strategies for recovery. Heart failure is treated with a vigorous blend of patient education, dietary changes, and medications.

Possible medications include:

  • Positive inotropic agents: These chemicals help the heart contract. The main agent of this category is digoxin. In-hospital options include dopamine, dobutamine, and milrinone.
  • Diuretics: Often called "water pills," diuretics help relieve the fluid overloads in heart failure.
  • Vasodilators: These drugs dilate blood vessels at several levels in the body, reducing the workload for the heart.
  • ACE-inhibitors and Beta blockers: These treatments act as vasodilators while helping to preserve the normal architecture of the heart muscle
  • Other drugs: Angiotensin II receptor blockers, antiarrhythmic drugs, and blood thinners.

Another technique which can be used is biventricular pacing. In this treatment, a pacemaker lead (i.e., cable) is inserted in each ventricle to help the heart contract better.

In severe cases, surgical procedures, which can be implemented to sustain life until a transplant donor becomes available, can help but do not cure the disease. They include:

  • Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD): Treatment provides mechanical circulatory support.
  • Dynamic Cardiomyoplasty: A procedure in which a skeletal muscle flap, created from a patient's thoracic muscle, is trained to contract often and "wrapped around" the heart to help it contract.

Advanced, severe heart failure requires heart transplantation.



Expectations (prognosis):

The outcome varies. The disorder is chronic and the condition may deteriorate rapidly.



Complications:


Calling your health care provider:
Go to the emergency room or call the local emergency number (such as 911) if symptoms indicating heart failure may be present, or if chest pain is present and not relieved by rest or medication.

Review Date: 5/25/2002
Reviewed By: Seth Keller, M.D., Division of Cardiology, Yale New Haven Medical Center, New Haven, CT. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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