New Method of Testing Patients with Cardiomyopathy Demonstrates Promise

Despite the clinical improvement in therapy, heart failure (HF) remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity, affecting 5.7 million people in the USA with an estimated 5-year mortality as high as 50% in symptomatic patients.  Estimating risk of mortality in HF plays an important role in management and recently two studies have demonstrated an improved method of determining treatment plans for patients with two types of cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic and dilated, that can result in HF.  The studies conducted at Stanford University examined the use of treadmill exercise testing along with sonograms of the heart. The first of the two studies, published in the American Journal of Cardiology, followed patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy for more than four years who had previously undergone the combined heart sonogram and exercise testing.  In the second study, published in the European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Imaging, researchers examined patients with dilated cardiomyopathy who underwent the same procedure.  Both studies demonstrated that integrating results from combined exercise testing into risk modelling might improve HF outcome prediction.  Risk stratification in HF is important in order to allocate resources and treatment to patients at highest risk.  Hopefully better prediction will impact management and, ultimately, treatment of patients.