Abstract

Cardiomyopathies are a complex and essential group of heart muscle diseases with diverse etiologies and heterogenous phenotypic expressions, often leading to progressive heart failure (muscular or electrical dysfunction) of the heart with significant morbidity and mortality. In some cases, cardiomyopathies can be asymptomatic in the early stages of the disease with symptoms (fatigue, shortness of breath, paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, orthopnea, edema, and cough) characteristically similar to any heart failure. Estimated to occur in 3% of the general population worldwide, knowledge and the understanding of these diseases in both the general public and the medical communities have historically been impaired by periodic confusion surrounding definitions and terminologies. Cardiomyopathies may be primary (i.e., genetic, acquired, or mixed) or secondary (e.g., toxic inflammatory, and infiltrative). Major types include hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, restrictive cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. Relieving symptoms of heart failure and decreasing hospitalization rates of cardiac failure are therapeutic aims of cardiomyopathy.