Secondary cardiomyopathy is due to specific causes and is often associated with diseases involving other organs as well as the heart. Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy is a disorder of the heart muscle where there is an increased amount of heart muscle in the left ventricle. The thickened muscle may also prevent some of the heart valves from working correctly and they may leak. There is a strong family basis for this condition. This disease is most common in young adults.
Some patients get problems with the rhythm of their hearts.
These abnormal heart rhythms in some cases can lead to sudden death. Some of the unexplained sudden deaths in Irish people may have resulted from this form of cardiomyopathy. Your doctor in some instances may suspect a problem if you complain of the above symptoms and if you have a heart murmur. The murmur or sound from your heart occurs when there is a n obstruction to blood flow from the left ventricle. Surgical treatment of the obstructive form is possible in some cases if the drug treatment fails.