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Copyright 2005 Health & Medicine Week via NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net
Health & Medicine Week
February 21, 2005
SECTION: EXPANDED REPORTING; Pg. 907
LENGTH: 467 words
HEADLINE: HYPERTROPHIC CARDIOMYOPATHY;
ECGs should extend into midlife in families with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
BODY:
A recent report presents a proposal for contemporary screening strategies in families with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
According to the report from the United States, "Screening families with
hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) presents a common clinical problem to practicing cardiologists, internists, and pediatricians. The traditional
recommended strategy for screening relatives in most HCM families calls for such evaluations with echocardiography (and electrocardiogram [ECG]) on a 12- to 18-month basis, usually beginning at about age 12 years."
B.J. Maron and colleagues of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation continued, "If such tests show no evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy, i.e., without one or more segments of abnormally increased wall thickness by the time full growth and maturation is achieved (at the age of about 18 to 21 years), it has been customary practice to conclude that HCM is probably absent and reassure family members accordingly that further echocardiographic testing is unnecessary."
"However, novel developments in the definition of the genetic causes of HCM have defined both substantial molecular diversity and heterogeneity of the disease expression including (in some relatives) incomplete phenotypic penetrance and delayed, late-onset left-ventricular hypertrophy well into adulthood. These observations have unavoidably reshaped the customary practice of genetic counseling and established a new proposed paradigm for clinical family screening of HCM families," the authors noted.
They concluded, "...in the absence of genetic testing, strong consideration should be given to extending diagnostic serial echocardiography past adolescence and into mid-life for those family members with a normal echocardiogram and ECG. Of note, recent developments in laboratory DNA-based diagnosis for HCM could potentially avoid the necessity for serial echocardiography in many such relatives."
Maron and colleagues published their study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (Proposal for contemporary screening strategies in families with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. J Am Coll Cardiol,
2004;44(11):2125-2132).
For additional information, contact B.J. Maron, Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center, 920 E 28th Street, Suite 60, Minneapolis, MN 55407, USA. [email protected]
Publisher contact information for the Journal of the American College of
Cardiology is: Elsevier Science Inc., 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1710, USA.
The information in this article comes under the major subject areas of
Genetics, Neurology and Cardiology.
This article was prepared by Health & Medicine Week editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2005, Health & Medicine Week via NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net.
LOAD-DATE: February 18, 2005
Health & Medicine Week
February 21, 2005
SECTION: EXPANDED REPORTING; Pg. 907
LENGTH: 467 words
HEADLINE: HYPERTROPHIC CARDIOMYOPATHY;
ECGs should extend into midlife in families with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
BODY:
A recent report presents a proposal for contemporary screening strategies in families with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
According to the report from the United States, "Screening families with
hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) presents a common clinical problem to practicing cardiologists, internists, and pediatricians. The traditional
recommended strategy for screening relatives in most HCM families calls for such evaluations with echocardiography (and electrocardiogram [ECG]) on a 12- to 18-month basis, usually beginning at about age 12 years."
B.J. Maron and colleagues of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation continued, "If such tests show no evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy, i.e., without one or more segments of abnormally increased wall thickness by the time full growth and maturation is achieved (at the age of about 18 to 21 years), it has been customary practice to conclude that HCM is probably absent and reassure family members accordingly that further echocardiographic testing is unnecessary."
"However, novel developments in the definition of the genetic causes of HCM have defined both substantial molecular diversity and heterogeneity of the disease expression including (in some relatives) incomplete phenotypic penetrance and delayed, late-onset left-ventricular hypertrophy well into adulthood. These observations have unavoidably reshaped the customary practice of genetic counseling and established a new proposed paradigm for clinical family screening of HCM families," the authors noted.
They concluded, "...in the absence of genetic testing, strong consideration should be given to extending diagnostic serial echocardiography past adolescence and into mid-life for those family members with a normal echocardiogram and ECG. Of note, recent developments in laboratory DNA-based diagnosis for HCM could potentially avoid the necessity for serial echocardiography in many such relatives."
Maron and colleagues published their study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (Proposal for contemporary screening strategies in families with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. J Am Coll Cardiol,
2004;44(11):2125-2132).
For additional information, contact B.J. Maron, Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center, 920 E 28th Street, Suite 60, Minneapolis, MN 55407, USA. [email protected]
Publisher contact information for the Journal of the American College of
Cardiology is: Elsevier Science Inc., 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1710, USA.
The information in this article comes under the major subject areas of
Genetics, Neurology and Cardiology.
This article was prepared by Health & Medicine Week editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2005, Health & Medicine Week via NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net.
LOAD-DATE: February 18, 2005