Author: hcmbeat

Pippa Middleton’s 1st Post-Wedding Appearance at HCM Fundraiser

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Pippa Middleton, (sister of Dutchess Katherine of Cambridge and sister-in-law of Prince William) and her brand new husband, James Matthews,  made their first public appearance as a married couple at a fundraiser for the Miles Frost Fund.  The Frost Fund, founded in memory of Middleton’s late friend Miles Frost who died from undiagnosed HCM, raises money for genetic testing of family members who have lost a close relative to sudden cardiac arrest, as well as funding HCM research.

Pippa, just back from her honeymoon to French Polynesia and Australia, looked refreshed in her white jumper and carried a red heart-shaped clutch to emphasize the purpose of the occasion.

The fundraiser also attracted other royals such as Princess Eugenie and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.

Here is a video of Wilfred Frost, brother of Miles Frost and son of Sir David Frost, talking about his father and brother’s deaths and the formation of the charity.

Non-Genetic HCM – Reduced Screening?

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According to researchers at the University of Michigan, family members of HCM patients who have tested negative for genes associated with HCM and without a family history of HCM will usually be found to be free of HCM during routine family screening.  And, in accordance a recent Australian study,  relatives of these patients may be able to benefit from less rigorous screening protocols.

Patients with a known sarcomere mutation appear to have a different clinical profile, according to the researchers:  they have more hypertrophy; they are younger when diagnosed; they have a higher risk for adverse events;  and they are more likely to have a family history for the condition.

In contrast, when the initial diagnosis is made in a patient who is 50 or older with no known genetic mutations, a negative family history, and sigmoidal septal pattern hypertrophy, reduced family screenings may be appropriate and less burdensome.  In addition, hypertension, large family size with no other affected family members,  less severe hypertrophy, and lack of life-threatening complications related to HCM may provide additional comfort to families of newly diagnosed HCM patients.

The reduced protocol would consist of a single screening of adult family members, with the caveat that if and when any additional family additional member is found to have HCM, a more traditional screening protocol be instituted.

(Note that standard screening guidelines recommend screening of all first-degree family members of patients beginning with adolescence, repeated annually through the end of adolescent growth, and repeated every 3 – 5 years for life.)

 

Should Alcohol Septal Ablation Be Considered for Younger Patients?

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Since the early 1960s, surgical septal reduction, also known as septal myectomy, has been used as a therapy for the treatment of obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Pioneered at the National Institute of Health by cardiac surgeon Dr. Glenn Morrow, himself a HCM patient, septal myectomy has become a mainstay of the HCM treatment arsenal.

An alternative to septal myectomy, alcohol septal ablation (ASA), was first performed by Ulrich Sigwart in the United Kingdom at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London in 1994.

For many years, the indications for ASA procedures has been limited to older patients with obstructive HCM who were not otherwise healthy enough to undergo open heart surgery.  However, some doctors are now advocating to expand the indications for ASA to include symptomatic younger patients.

(For more information about myectomy and ASA,  click here and scroll to bottom of page).

Continue reading “Should Alcohol Septal Ablation Be Considered for Younger Patients?” →

Outlook Positive for Most HCM Patients

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According to an editorial published in yesterday’s issue of Circulation by Drs. Barry and Martin Maron together with Dr. Ethan Rowin, the outlook for most HCM patients is much rosier than previously thought.

According to current estimates, which take into account contemporary disease treatments and risk management strategies, the risk of death from HCM is only .5% per year or 2.5% over 5 years, which is similar to the degree of risk in the general non-HCM population.

Hence, according to the editorial, HCM patients should be reassured about their long term prognosis.

 

Could a Tarantula Help to Unravel the Mysteries of HCM?

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Researchers from around the globe have joined together to study an unlikely subject in order to understand the genetics of HCM according to a paper published today in the journal  eLIFE.

Dr. Christine Seidman, a cardiologist from Harvard Medical School, Dr. James Ware  a geneticist from the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences at Imperial College London, and Dr. Raúl Padrón, a structural biologist at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research, have joined forces in order to study the tarantula.

The reason for their focus on the tarantula is because the proteins comprising the muscles inside the furry spider are actually very similar to proteins inside the human heart.

Dr. Seidman, who had taken note of Dr. Padrón’s work with spiders, sought him out at a meeting to discuss the similarity of heart proteins to those in tarantula muscles and asked him whether they might collaborate.

By studying the way that the spider proteins interact with one another, the scientists hope that they will gain further insight into whether and how certain genes cause different types of hereditary cardiomyopathy, including hypertrophic and dilated.

I hope that they find the answers soon, before any tarantulas escape from their lab!

EEEEEEEKKKK!

 

ICD May Not Bar Competitive Sports

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It may be possible for some athletes to continue playing competitive sports despite having an implantable defibrillator according to a recent study published in this week’s Circulation.

The study followed 440 athletes with ICDs who participated in organized sports over a 4 year period. Diagnoses included HCM, Long QT Syndrome, and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) .  Common sports for the patient-athletes were running, basketball and soccer.

Over the period of the study, 121 of the patient-athletes received a total of 184 shocks:   7% while participating in competition or practice, 5% during other physical activities, and 6% while resting.  No deaths were reported over the approximately 44 months study. “Even though some people did receive shocks while they were participating in sports, no harm came to patients,” said lead author Dr. Rachel Lampert, a professor of internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine.

The study did note that patients with ARVC who engaged in sports were more likely to experience life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias requiring therapy, and, were more likely to receive repeated shocks from their devices.  Hence, competitive sports may be inadvisable for ARVC patients.

For more details about this study, see this story from Health Day News and from Yale News.

 

 

 

Pre-Implantation Genetic Testing to Eradicate Genetic Disease- An Editorial

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In this editorial by Lee Cooper published in today’s issue of Wired Magazine, a patient with Long QT Syndrome makes the case for the use of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) used in tandem with in vitro fertilization (IVF) as a means to eliminate hereditary disease.

This technique has already been used in HCM; most successfully in cases caused by a single, identifiable genetic mutation. PGD combined with IVF is a potentially viable option for patients with HCM who are planning to grow their families.

Of course, there are many ethical issues raised with the use of this technology, and the use (or non-use) of these technologies is a very personal decision.  Perhaps such moral uncertainty is what caused Cooper’s doctors to be “reticent to discuss IVF head on” and “bashful about the idea of removing [t]his disease from [his] lineage.”

As Cooper says in the editorial “…we can, and we must be able to speak clearly about the best ways to prevent disease if we are serious about eliminating it.”  If every option were to be laid out on the table for consideration by the patient, then s/he would have the freedom to make a final decision in accordance with his/her own unique set of values.

What do you think?

Aspirin May Cause More Harm than Good in Afib

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According to new research presented at last week’s meeting of the Heart Rhythm Society, aspirin is not effective in preventing strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation, and in some instances may actually do more harm than good.

Note that previous studies have demonstrated that aspirin is not effective in preventing strokes from Afib.

In fact, the study, led by Dr. Jared Bunch from Intermountain Healthcare system, Salt Lake City, UT, found that patients who were prescribed aspirin following catheter ablation procedures to treat atrial fibrillation were significantly more likely to suffer gastrointestinal or genitourinary bleeding than those who took other anticoagulants like warfarin, or those who received no treatment at all.

For more, see these articles from  Medical News Today  and Science Times (with link to video).

 

Cardiac Volume Reduced in Patients with HCM Gene

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Researchers in Norway have demonstrated that patients who carry a HCM gene show reduced cardiac volume when compared to healthy individuals.  Patients with overt HCM show even further reduction to their cardiac volume than those who merely carry the gene.

Although the gene positive individuals lacked the characteristic left ventricular wall thickening of HCM, diastolic and systolic volumes were reduced when compared to healthy individuals. Hence, the researchers concluded that a person who is gene positive for the disease may show reduced volume before developing hypertrophy.

The study included 180 patients with left ventricular hypertrophy, 100 patients who carried the HCM gene but did not show signs of left ventricular hypertrophy, and 80 healthy individuals.

The researchers theorize that early changes in HCM result from the gradual stiffening of the left ventricle, which contributes to filling changes before anatomical thickening is apparent. These changes will likely worsen as the disease progresses.

The researchers suggest future long term studies of gene positive individuals with small cardiac volume who show signs of diastolic and systolic dysfunction. These patients, they suggest, are the most likely to go on to develop HCM.

 For more on early signs of HCM click here.

Safety of MRIs With Abandoned Leads

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Two posters presented at this weekend’s Heart Rhythm Society meeting in Chicago show that patients who have abandoned pacemaker or ICD leads may safely undergo MRI exams.

These posters follow the earlier MagnaSafe study which demonstrated the safety of MRI for patients with pacemakers and ICDs, but which excluded patients with abandoned leads from the findings.

The first, by researchers at Mayo Clinic, included 57 patients with 63 abandoned leads who underwent 70 MRI exams in a 1.5 Tesla machine.  The authors saw no clinical problems and no device malfunction following the scans.

The researchers also monitored blood troponin levels in 35 of the patients following the scans and did not see any elevation which could indicate distress to the heart from the scan.

The second poster, from the University of Pennsylvania, involved 24 patients with abandoned leads who underwent 34 MRI exams.  The results of this study also failed to demonstrate any clinical problems or patient discomfort resulting from the MRI scans.

With any luck, everyone will soon be able to obtain an MRI and will not be denied due to any kind of implantable cardiac device.

For an account of my personal experiences seeking MRI with an ICD, read this.