4.4/5 Trustpilot
Cardiomyopathy Treatment Cost In India
What is cardiomyopathy?
Cardiomyopathy is a progressive disease of the myocardium or heart muscle. In most cases, the heart muscle weakens and is unable to pump blood to the rest of the body as well as it should. There are many different types of cardiomyopathy caused by a range of factors, from coronary heart disease to certain drugs. These can all lead to an irregular heartbeat, heart failure, a heart valve problem, or other complications.
Medical treatment and follow-up care are important. They can help prevent heart failure or other complications.
What are the types of cardiomyopathy?
Cardiomyopathy generally has four types.
Dilated cardiomyopathy
The most common form, dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), occurs when your heart muscle is too weak to pump blood efficiently. The muscles stretch and become thinner. This allows the chambers of your heart to expand.
This is also known as an enlarged heart. You can inherit it, or it can be due to coronary artery disease.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is believed to be genetic. It occurs when your heart walls thicken and prevent blood from flowing through your heart. It’s a fairly common type of cardiomyopathy. It can also be caused by long-term high blood pressure or aging. Diabetes or thyroid disease can also cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. There are other instances that the cause is unknown.
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD)
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD) is a very rare form of cardiomyopathy, but it’s the leading cause of sudden death in young athletes. In this type of genetic cardiomyopathy, fat and extra fibrous tissue replace the muscle of the right ventricle. This causes abnormal heart rhythms.
Restrictive cardiomyopathy
Restrictive cardiomyopathy is the least common form. It occurs when the ventricles stiffen and can’t relax enough to fill up with blood. Scarring of the heart, which frequently occurs after a heart transplant, may be a cause. It can also occur as a result of heart disease.
Other types
Most of the following types of cardiomyopathy belong to one of the previous four classifications, but each has unique causes or complications.
Peripartum cardiomyopathy occurs during or after pregnancy. This rare type occurs when the heart weakens within five months of delivery or the final month of pregnancy. When it occurs after delivery, it’s sometimes called postpartum cardiomyopathy. This is a form of dilated cardiomyopathy, and it’s a life-threatening condition. There’s no cause.
Alcoholic cardiomyopathy is due to drinking too much alcohol over a long period, which can weaken your heart so it can no longer pump blood efficiently. Your heart then becomes enlarged. This is a form of dilated cardiomyopathy.
Ischemic cardiomyopathy occurs when your heart can no longer pump blood to the rest of your body due to coronary artery disease. Blood vessels to the heart muscle narrow and become blocked. This deprives the heart muscle of oxygen. Ischemic cardiomyopathy is a common cause of heart failure. Alternatively, nonischemic cardiomyopathy is any form that isn’t related to coronary artery disease.
Noncompaction cardiomyopathy also called spongiform cardiomyopathy, is a rare disease present at birth. It results from abnormal development of the heart muscle in the womb. Diagnosis may occur at any stage of life.
When cardiomyopathy affects a child, it’s called pediatric cardiomyopathy.
If you have idiopathic cardiomyopathy, it means there’s no known cause.
What are the symptoms of cardiomyopathy?
There might be no signs or symptoms in the early stages of cardiomyopathy. But as the condition advances, signs and symptoms usually appear, including:
- Breathlessness with exertion or even at rest
- Swelling of the legs, ankles, and feet
- Bloating of the abdomen due to fluid buildup
- Cough while lying down
- Fatigue
- Heartbeats that feel rapid, pounding or fluttering
- Chest discomfort or pressure
- Dizziness, lightheadedness, and fainting
Signs and symptoms tend to get worse unless treated. In some people, the condition worsens quickly; in others, it might not worsen for a long time.
When to see a doctor
See your doctor if you have one or more signs or symptoms associated with cardiomyopathy. Call 911 or your local emergency number if you have severe difficulty breathing, fainting or chest pain that lasts for more than a few minutes.
Because some types of cardiomyopathy can be hereditary if you have it your doctor might advise that your family members be checked.
Causes
Often the cause of the cardiomyopathy is unknown. In some people, however, it’s the result of another condition (acquired) or passed on from a parent (inherited).
Contributing factors for acquired cardiomyopathy include:
- Long-term high blood pressure
- Heart tissue damage from a heart attack
- Chronic rapid heart rate
- Heart valve problems
- Metabolic disorders, such as obesity, thyroid disease or diabetes
- Nutritional deficiencies of essential vitamins or minerals, such as thiamin (vitamin B-1)
- Pregnancy complications
- Drinking too much alcohol over many years
- Use of cocaine, amphetamines or anabolic steroids
- Use of some chemotherapy drugs and radiation to treat cancer
- Certain infections, especially those that inflame the heart
- Iron buildup in your heart muscle (hemochromatosis)
- A condition that causes inflammation and can cause lumps of cells to grow in the heart and other organs (sarcoidosis)
- A disorder that causes the buildup of abnormal proteins (amyloidosis)
- Connective tissue disorders
Diagnosis
Your doctor will conduct a physical examination, take a personal and family medical history, and ask when your symptoms occur — for example, whether exercise brings on your symptoms. If your doctor thinks you have cardiomyopathy, you might need to undergo several tests to confirm the diagnosis, including:
- Chest X-ray. An image of your heart will show whether it’s enlarged.
- Echocardiogram. This uses sound waves to produce images of the heart, which show its size and its motions as it beats. This test checks your heart valves and helps your doctor determine the cause of your symptoms.
- Electrocardiogram (ECG). In this noninvasive test, electrode patches are attached to your skin to measure electrical impulses from your heart. An ECG can show disturbances in the electrical activity of your heart, which can detect abnormal heart rhythms and areas of injury.
- Treadmill stress test. Your heart rhythm, blood pressure, and breathing are monitored while you walk on a treadmill. Your doctor might recommend this test to evaluate symptoms, determine your exercise capacity and determine if exercise provokes abnormal heart rhythms.
- Cardiac catheterization. A thin tube (catheter) is inserted into your groin and threaded through your blood vessels to your heart. Doctors might extract a small sample (biopsy) of your heart for analysis in the laboratory. Pressure within the chambers of your heart can be measured to see how forcefully blood pumps through your heart.
Doctors might inject a dye into your blood vessels so that they show on X-rays (coronary angiogram). This test can be used to ensure there are no blockages in your blood vessels. - Cardiac MRI. This test uses magnetic fields and radio waves to create images of your heart. Cardiac MRI might be used in addition to echocardiography, particularly if the images from your echocardiogram don’t help make a diagnosis.
- Cardiac CT scan. You lie on a table inside a doughnut-shaped machine. An X-ray tube inside the machine rotates around your body and collects images of your heart and chest to assess the heart size and function and heart valves.
- Blood tests. Several blood tests might be done, including those to check your kidney, thyroid and liver function, and to measure your iron levels.
One blood test can measure B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), a protein produced in your heart. Your blood level of BNP might rise when your heart is in heart failure, a common complication of cardiomyopathy. - Genetic testing or screening. Cardiomyopathy can be hereditary. Discuss genetic testing with your doctor. He or she might recommend family screening or genetic testing for your first-degree relatives — parents, siblings, and children.
Treatment
The goals of cardiomyopathy treatment are to manage your signs and symptoms, prevent your condition from worsening, and reduce your risk of complications. Treatment varies by which type of cardiomyopathy you have.
Medications
Your doctor might prescribe medications to improve your heart’s pumping ability, improve blood flow, lower blood pressure, slow your heart rate, remove excess fluid from your body or keep blood clots from forming.
Be sure to discuss possible side effects with your doctor before taking any of these drugs.
Surgically implanted devices
Several types of devices can be placed in the heart to improve its function and relieve symptoms, including:
- Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). This device monitors your heart rhythm and delivers electric shocks when needed to control abnormal heart rhythms. An ICD doesn’t treat cardiomyopathy, but watches for and controls abnormal rhythms, a serious complication of the condition.
- Ventricular assist device (VAD). This helps blood circulate through your heart. VAD usually is considered after less-invasive approaches are unsuccessful. It can be used as a long-term treatment or as a short-term treatment while waiting for a heart transplant.
- Pacemaker. This small device placed under the skin in the chest or abdomen uses electrical impulses to control arrhythmias.
Nonsurgical procedures
Other procedures used to treat cardiomyopathy or arrhythmia include:
- Septal ablation. A small portion of the thickened heart muscle is destroyed by injecting alcohol through a long, thin tube (catheter) into the artery supplying blood to that area. This allows blood to flow through the area.
- Radiofrequency ablation. To treat abnormal heart rhythms, doctors guide long, flexible tubes (catheters) through your blood vessels to your heart. Electrodes at the catheter tips transmit energy to damage a small spot of abnormal heart tissue that is causing the abnormal heart rhythm.
Surgery
Septal myectomy. In this open-heart surgery, your surgeon removes part of the thickened heart muscle wall (septum) that separates the two bottom heart chambers (ventricles). Removing part of the heart muscle improves blood flow through the heart and reduces mitral valve regurgitation.
Reference:
- Healthline
- Mayo Clinic
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on whatsapp
Related Articles
4.4/5 Trustpilot
4.4/5 . GoogleAbout Mozocare
Mozocare is a medical access platform for hospitals and clinics to assist patients access best medical care at affordable prices. Mozocare Insights provides Health News, Latest treatment innovation, Hospital ranking , Healthcare Industry Information and Knowledge sharing .
Write For Us
© 2020 Mozocare. All Rights Reserved. 