Category: News

Do Elite Athletes Provide Clues About HCM?

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During the Olympics we all gather around our television sets to watch the best athletes in the world compete against each other and we wonder how it is that they can humanly perform at such a high level?

This feature story about Stanford HCM Clinic’s Dr. Euan Ashley provides us with an interesting overview of the research Dr. Ashley is doing on high performance elite athletes with the hope that their genes may provide clues that will one day help to help treat those of us with HCM and other genetic heart conditions.

Many HCM Patients Physically Inactive

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According to a recent study of HCM patients, more than half of the patients surveyed did not participate in adequate physical activity due to complaints of pain, injury and disability.

The takeaway from this study is that for those with HCM, physical activity should be encouraged to the extent possible for each patient.

For more on exercise, see the AHA Guidelines for exercise on the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy – HCM For Short page of this website and the HCM exercise program developed by Toronto’s Peter Munk Cardiac Centre listed at bottom of the Resources  page of this website.

 

Unsuspected AFib Detected in HCM Patients

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A recent retrospective study published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology found that atrial fibrillation (AF) occurred for the first time in 16 of 30 patients (53%) of patients with implantable devices being followed at the center conducting the study.

Of the patients experiencing AF for the first time, 14 of 16 (88%) of the patients were not aware of having experienced any clinical symptoms.  As patients age, AF appears to be a common consequence of HCM.  Patients may be caught unaware and unprepared, so monitoring is especially important.

HCM Drug Trial Advances to Next Round

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MyoKardia, a San Francisco based bio-phamaceutical company developing drugs specifically for HCM and other genetic cardiomyopathies, announced data from their Stage 1 trials showing that the drug,  MYK-461, benefits patients with HCM.

Specifically they found that the drug reduced ejection fractions and left ventricular outflow tract gradients in certain of the 101 individuals who participated in their Phase 1 trials.

The next step for the drug is to try to duplicate these findings in Phase 2 trials which will commence later this year.

HCM May Develop Later in Life

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A recent study followed 14 patients carrying one of two known genes associated with HCM (MYBPC3 and MYH7) over a 10+ year period .  At the time  of gene identification, none of the patients shown clinical evidence of hypertrophy.  Over the time span of the study, 3 patients, who were then adults, had developed signs of HCM.  Hence, the study suggests that periodic screenings are necessary for gene positive individuals throughout adulthood.

According to Cardiomyopathy U.K., the researchers undertook this project due to the lack of information and guidelines available to patients who are gene positive but have no outward signs of the disease.

Severe Pediatric Cardiomyopathy Causing Gene Identified

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A recent article in Science Daily discussed findings of geneticists in the Netherlands which revealed the existence of  a mutation in the gene alpha-kinase 3 (ALPK3) which, if inherited from both parents, may cause severe cardiomyopathy in children.

Cardiomyopathy U.K. recently featured this story on their website.

See here for study.

 

 

Alternative to Myectomy?

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Could this minimally invasive procedure prove to be a viable alternative to septal myectomy or alcohol ablation for septal reduction?

Doctors at Minneapolis Heart Institute are planning a larger, multi-center trial to test the viability of this procedure as a larger scale treatment for HCM.

Surgery Riskier for HCM Patients

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According to a recent article in the British Cardiac Society’s Heart, HCM patients have a higher complication rate associated with unrelated non-cardiac surgeries than non-HCM patient undergoing similar procedures.  Hence, HCM patients undergoing surgery should receive increased attention during and after surgery.

HCM Top Cause of Death in Male Athletes

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HCM is the most frequent cause of death in male athletes according to a soon to be published study analyzing competitive athlete causes of death between 1980 and 2011.  

More than 1/3 of deaths were due to HCM, which was almost four times more common in males than females. Deaths in minorities were almost 5 times greater than in whites.

The complete study will be published in October in The American Journal of Medicine.

 

 

 

 

More ICD Complications for Women and African-Americans?

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According to an article in the Wall Street Journal citing a recent study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, African-Americans with ICDs were 14% more likely to have complications than white patients with implantable defibrillators, and while women with ICDs were 16% more likely to have complications than men with implantable defibrillators.

The sex-based differences were attributed to the fact that women are generally diagnosed with heart disease later than men, and the fact the device testing process largely omits women, while the race-based differences were less clear, but may have resulted from diminished access to health care by African-American patients.