A 63-year-old teacher living in the USA has heart muscle (HCM) disease, which occurs in one in 500 people. 20 years ago, a device that could detect the heartbeat was implanted in his heart. When paramedics diagnosed her in 2003, the retired teacher fitted a device that would make her heart jump if her heart stopped beating. Normally used only once in a patient’s lifetime, this device has saved the unidentified woman 10 times in 19 years.
WHAT IS HYPERTROPHIC CARDIOMYOPATHY?
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a disease that occurs as a result of abnormal thickening of the muscle layer of the heart, which we call the myocardium. The thickened heart muscle can make it harder to pump blood from the heart to the body over time. It can be caused by a change or mutation in one or more genes and can be a genetic condition that runs in families. The main symptoms are shortness of breath, chest pain, palpitations and dizziness. Most patients have few or no symptoms. Patients live a normal life. Rarely, there is a risk of developing a life-threatening abnormal heart rhythm that can cause cardiac arrest and sudden death.