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Published on: June 14, 2016
Insights
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy frequently affects older adults, with symptoms often misdiagnosed. This suggests a potentially more favorable disease course for some patients, impacting clinical management strategies.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Geriatric Medicine
Background:
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is typically associated with younger individuals.
- However, HCM can also present in older populations, often with atypical presentations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the prevalence and characteristics of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in an elderly patient cohort.
- To compare clinical presentations and diagnostic findings of HCM in older versus younger patients.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of 23 hypertrophic cardiomyopathy cases over 2.5 years.
- Inclusion of patients aged 65 years and older.
- Cardiac catheterization and echocardiography for obstructive component assessment.
Main Results:
- 20 of 23 HCM cases were in patients aged 65-76 years.
- 16 of these older patients had obstructive HCM.
- Symptoms were often misattributed to other conditions like aortic stenosis or hypertensive heart disease.
Conclusions:
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is not uncommon in older adults, predominantly females.
- The disease may present with few or no symptoms until late in life.
- Clinical management should consider this potentially indolent course in older patients.
Abstract:
Although usually considered a disease of young or middle-aged adults, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is not infrequently seen in older patients as well. Twenty of 23 cases of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy seen in the past 2 1/2 years at our institution have been in patients whose average age was 65 years, and who ranged up to 76 years. Sixteen of these had evidence of an obstructive component at cardiac catheterization or echocardiography. Symptoms and signs were similar to those described for the younger patients in the literature, but were often attributed to other causes, including valvular aortic stenosis, arteriosclerotic or hypertensive heart disease, or cerebrovascular disease. Left ventricular hypertrophy was more consistently present on ECG than on x-ray. The not-infrequent occurrence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in older patients, predominantly females, indicates that the natural history of this disease includes a group who suffer few or no symptoms until late in life. Clinical management of younger patients with this diagnosis should be considered in light of this more favorable possible course.
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