Strain Echocardiography Predicts Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Risk

The study was presented as a poster session at the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) 27th annual scientific sessions, held during June 2016 in Seattle (WA, USA).

“HCM is the most common inherited cardiac condition, with several disabling and life-threatening complications. Global longitudinal strain was able to independently predict key outcomes in HCM, and therefore has the potential to become an essential tool in HCM risk assessment,” said lead author and study presenter Hongyun Liu, MD, of the JHU HCM Center of Excellence.

HCM is a primary disease of the myocardium in which a portion of it becomes hypertrophic without any obvious cause, creating functional impairment of the cardiac muscle. It is a leading cause of SCD in young athletes, and indeed in any age group, and a cause of disabling cardiac symptoms. HCM is frequently asymptomatic until SCD, and for this reason some suggest routinely screening certain populations for this disease, as the prevalence is about 0.2% to 0.5% of the general population.

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