Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
Article Abstract:
Patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy have an inherited condition that causes enlargement of the heart muscle; the only true cure is a heart transplant. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients have increased heart contractions and decreased blood flow to the heart with low cardiac output. These patients may experience fatigue, weakness, lightheadedness, faintness and chest pain. They are diagnosed using echocardiography. Children of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients have a 50% chance of inheriting the condition. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy may be caused by a excess of calcium in heart muscle cells and a mutation in the gene for one type of heart muscle protein. Individuals can have different types of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is a progressive disease. Many patients have arrhythmia (irregular heart beat). Patients under 30-years-of-age often die suddenly. Patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy can be treated with drugs to decrease the size of the heart, or they can undergo surgery to improve cardiac output.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1992
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Hypertrophic Pyloric Stenosis in Infants Following Pertussis Prophylaxis With Erythromycin--Knoxville, Tennessee, 1999
Article Abstract:
Doctors should be cautious when giving the antibiotic erythromycin to babies. In February, 1999, six newborn babies at a hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee were diagnosed with pertussis, the medical term for whooping cough. Because a health-care worker at the hospital was suspected as the carrier of the bacterium that causes whooping cough, doctors recommended giving erythromycin to about 200 infants born at the hospital that month. One month later, local pediatric surgeons reported 7 cases of infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (IHPS). IHPS is an abnormality of the stomach that causes projectile vomiting. All 7 babies had been born in the hospital and had received erythromycin.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 2000
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Advances in Molecular Genetics and Management of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
Article Abstract:
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a genetic disease that causes the walls of the left ventricle of the heart to become thick. Although this can make the heart beat stronger in the short term, it leads to heart failure in the long term. It can cause sudden death, usually from a serious arrhythmia called ventricular fibrillation. For this reason, some patients can benefit from anti-arrhythmia drugs. Other heart drugs such as beta blockers and calcium channel blockers may be effective. Implantable defibrillators can prevent sudden death. Seven different gene mutations have been linked to HCM but there may be many more.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1999
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