Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

Purpose Of Review: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common inherited cardiac condition with potential for severe complications including sudden cardiac death. Early diagnosis allows appropriate risk stratification and prompt intervention to minimise the potential for adverse outcomes. The implications of poorly coordinated screening are significant, either missing relatives at high-risk or burdening low-risk individuals with a diagnosis associated with reduced life expectancy.

Sequencing of medical therapy in heart failure with a reduced ejection fraction.

The management of heart failure with a reduced ejection fraction is a true success story of modern medicine. Evidence from randomised clinical trials provides the basis for an extensive catalogue of disease-modifying drug treatments that improve both symptoms and survival. These treatments have undergone rigorous scrutiny by licensing and guideline development bodies to make them eligible for clinical use.

Dilated cardiomyopathy: the role of genetics, highlighted in a family with Filamin C (FLNC) variant.

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a heterogenous group of disorders characterised by left ventricular dilatation and dysfunction, in the absence of factors affecting loading conditions such as hypertension or valvular disease, or significant coronary artery disease. The prevalence of idiopathic DCM is estimated between 1:250 and 1:500 individuals. Determining the aetiology of DCM can be challenging, particularly when evaluating an individual and index case with no classical history or investigations pointing towards an obvious acquired cause, or no clinical clues in the family history to suggest a genetic cause.

Coronary embolization from aortic valve fibroelastoma.

Papillary fibroelastomas have a range of clinical presentations. The surgical removal of these tumors should always be considered as best alternative to a conservative approach.

Development and validation of a novel non-contact monitor of nocturnal respiration for identifying sleep-disordered breathing in patients with heart failure.

Aims: At least 50% of patients with heart failure (HF) may have sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). Overnight in-hospital polysomnography (PSG) is considered the gold standard for diagnosis, but a lack of access to such testing contributes to under-diagnosis of SDB. Therefore, there is a need for simple and reliable validated methods to aid diagnosis in patients with HF.

Severe cardiac failure due to rapidly progressive rheumatoid arthritis-associated valvulopathy.

Cardiac failure due to rapidly progressive valve disease is a rare complication of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that can be challenging to manage. A patient with severe heart failure secondary to RA who, after failing to respond to medical therapy, underwent high-risk valve surgery and did remarkably well, with dramatic symptomatic improvement and essentially normalised left ventricular size and function as seen on follow-up echocardiography.

Spastic paraparesis following cocaine inhalation.

Cocaine use is reaching epidemic proportions in the UK and the consequences are a number of debilitating effects. Strokes may result from a number of mechanisms related to cocaine use. This report describes a case of cocaine induced stroke in an apparently healthy young man with unusual patterns of radiological findings on his brain MRI.