Get the Advanced HCM Care You Deserve
If you have a family history of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) or are experiencing symptoms such as shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat or chest pain, talk to your doctor. At our Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center of Comprehensive Management and Excellence, our specialists are leaders in diagnosing and treating hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Our process for diagnosing this condition includes:
- Taking a medical history: Your doctor will ask you about your family history and any symptoms you may have.
- Doing a physical exam: Your doctor will listen to your heart and lungs to see if they can detect a heart murmur.
- Ordering diagnostic tests: Your doctor will likely do an echocardiogram (a test that uses sound waves to create pictures of the heart) to check the thickness of your heart muscle and how the blood is flowing in your heart.
Your doctor may also use other diagnostic tests, including:
- Cardiac catheterization (an imaging procedure that examines how well your heart is working)
- Cardiac MRI (a test using magnetic field and radiofrequency waves to create a detailed image of your heart and blood vessels)
- Coronary angiography (X-rays that show how well your blood is flowing through your heart’s arteries to see if there are any blockages)
- Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG, a test to measure the electrical activity in your heart to find problems)
- Exercise stress echo test (a test in which we take an ultrasound of your heart before and after exercise to see how well it responds to stress)
- Genetic testing (a blood or saliva test that examines your DNA for your inherited risk for certain heart diseases)
- Holter and event monitors (a small device you wear to record your heart’s rhythm for a few days)
- Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI is a noninvasive imaging test to show how well blood flows through your heart muscle)
How We Treat and Manage Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
Your doctor will recommend an individualized treatment plan based on your test results, symptoms and individual needs. Your treatment plan may include monitoring, medications or specialized surgery where your surgeon resects or removes the muscle tissue that may be obstructing the heart function.
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Medications
Your doctor can prescribe you medications to treat symptoms and prevent further complications. Medications such as beta blockers and calcium channel blockers relax your heart muscle, allowing it to fill better and pump blood more effectively. Your doctor may prescribe other medications as needed to control your heart rate or decrease the occurrence of arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats).
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Procedures
Our cardiovascular surgeons are experts in the leading surgical and nonsurgical procedures to treat hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Your doctor may recommend one of several surgical and nonsurgical procedures to treat HCM, including:
- Septal myectomy: During this open-heart surgery, your surgeon will remove part of the thickened septum that’s bulging into the left ventricle. This can improve blood flow within the heart and out to the body. We use this procedure for people with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and severe symptoms. This surgery is usually best for younger patients and for people whose medications aren’t working well.
- Alcohol septal ablation: Your doctor may recommend this nonsurgical procedure if septal myectomy is not an option for you. The ablation procedure is performed in our cardiac catheterization laboratory, where we inject ethanol (a type of alcohol) through a tube into your small artery that supplies blood to the area of heart muscle thickened by HCM. The alcohol causes these cells to die, so the thickened tissue shrinks to a more normal size.
- Surgically implanted devices: Your surgeon can implant several types of devices to help the heart work better. These include an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), a pacemaker or a cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) device.
- Heart transplant: Your doctor may recommend a heart transplant if you have advanced, end-stage hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.