Cardiomyopathy

What are some pediatric cardiomyopathy symptoms?

Because this disease varies from child to child, the signs of cardiomyopathy can be hard to predict. Children with cardiomyopathy may have swelling of the extremities or around the eyes. This happens when body fluids build up because the heart is not pumping hard enough or because the heart is stiff, making it difficult for blood to return from the body or lungs to the heart.

Cardiomyopathy symptoms in infants include heavy breathing and rapidly while feeding, sweating excessively (especially when feeding), having a poor appetite and gaining weight slowly. Older children may become out of breath easily, have decreased exercise endurance, or have abdominal pain or chest pain. Coughing, fainting, easy fatigability, rapid breathing, rapid heart rate or pale appearance may also occur.

How is cardiomyopathy diagnosed?

In order to treat your child's condition, your pediatric cardiologist at Children's Colorado will want to determine the cause, type and extent of your child's cardiomyopathy. There are several tests routinely used in diagnosis and to plan the best course of treatment:

• Blood test
• Chest X-ray
• EKG
• Holter and event monitors
• ECHO
• Exercise or stress test
• Cardiac catheterization
• Cardiac MRI

What are cardiomyopathy treatment options at Children's Colorado?

Treatment usually tries to correct the underlying cause of the cardiomyopathy. Treatment could include surgical correction of a heart defect, control of an abnormal heart rhythm or replacement of nutritional deficiencies.

At the Cardiomyopathy Program at Children's Colorado, one of our most important goals of treatment is maximizing our patients' quality of life.

Medication

Medical therapy varies with the different forms of cardiomyopathies. Patients may need no medication or they may need several medications to best manage their symptoms and disease depending on the specific type of cardiomyopathy.

Medical devices

If a child is considered to have a high risk for a life-threatening abnormal heart rhythm known as arrhythmia, placement of an internal cardiac defibrillator (ICD) may be necessary. In those patients who develop life-threatening abnormal heart rhythms, an ICD is the only modality known to prevent sudden cardiac death.

Mechanical circulatory support with artificial heart pumps such as ventricular assist devices (VAD) and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) are utilized in children with severe heart failure as a bridge to transplantation.

Heart transplant

Frequent cardiac catheterizations are necessary to monitor the blood pressure in the lungs. For some children, there is no repair or medication that can help the failing heart or rising blood pressure. In these cases, a heart transplant may be an option. A transplant occurs when a failing heart is replaced by a healthy heart from an organ donor. One out of five kids with cardiomyopathy requires a transplant within a year of their diagnosis.

Although doctors have not yet found a cure for pediatric cardiomyopathy, they continue to find new ways to help patients manage this condition.

Want to learn more about cardiomyopathy?

Check out these websites for more information:

• The Cardiomyopathy Program at Children's Colorado
• Children's Cardiomyopathy Foundation
• The American Heart Association
• The Cardiomyopathy Association
• Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association