Cardiomyopathies - Disorders of the myocardium

Cardiomyopathies

These are diseases of the heart muscle, which may be primary (intrinsic to myocardium) or secondary (due to an external or systemic cause).

Primary cardiomyopathies include dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and restrictive cardiomyopathy. They are classified according to the functional abnormality and are described below.

Secondary cardiomyopathies occur when ventricular dysfunction results from ischaemia (ischaemic cardiomyopathy), poorly controlled hypertension (hypertensive cardiomyopathy), valvular disease (valvular cardiomyopathy) or other systemic diseases such as thyrotoxicosis, chronic anaemia, drugs or toxins, viruses and alcohol.