Familial dilated cardiomyopathy--a case report from western Nepal

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a common cause of congestive cardiac failure all over the world. Most cases are idiopathic and sporadic. However, an increasing number are found to have a genetic basis which accounts for about 25.0-30.0% of cases all over the world. Different modes of inheritance and mutations have been implicated in these familial cases. Regardless of the type, they usually present in an advanced state with features of congestive cardiac failure or with complications like arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death and have a high mortality rate of 15.0-50.0% at 5 years. Hence in all DCM cases, detailed family history and if possible screening examination of the relatives is to be done so as to diagnose the familial cases in an early stage and prevent the likely complications. Here we present an interesting case of familial dilated cardiomyopathy (FDC) in which all four sons of the family are suffering from a heart disease while all the daughters are spared.