In May of this year, HCMBeat published this interview with Yale’s Dr. Daniel Jacoby and Dr. Nikolaos Papoutsidakis about their online survey of HCM patients who engage in risk-taking activities.

In this conversation, Drs. Jacoby and Papoutsidakis emphasized that the shared decision making process is an important facet of the patient/physician relationship for HCM patients. Risks should be explained, and decisions made with each patient’s set of values and priorities in mind. The doctors hoped that the results from their study would help to inform the shared decision-making process as applied to activities that involve any amount of patient risk-taking.

In a poster presented at this weekend’s American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Chicago, Drs. Jacoby and Papousidakis made the results of this survey public.

After analyzing data from 633 patients (282 men and 351 women), 556 patients reported participating in thrill-seeking activities, while 331 continued such participation after their HCM diagnosis.  The doctors found that only 33.6% of the patients who engaged in the thrill-seeking activities experienced such minor adverse events as dizziness, nausea, palpitations or chest pain, while only .02% experienced significant events during or within an hour following the activity.  Only one ICD shock was reported.

Hence, the doctors concluded that the risks associated with such activities appear to be low.