Echocardiographic Evaluation of

Andrew Maslow MD Department of Anesthesiology Rhode Island Hospital, Providence Rhode Island Introduction Cardiomyopathy is generally defined as a “disease of the myocardium associated with cardiac dysfunction”. 1 Primary cardiomyopathies are divided into three major classifications: a) dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), b) hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), and c) restrictive (or infiltrative) cardiomyopathy (RICM). Although there are functional and clinical overlaps, each of the primary cardiomyopathies has distinctive morphological and functional characteristics. The incidence of cardiomyopathy is less than 1% in the general population, with DCM representing the vast majority of cases. 2 Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is less prevalent while RICM is the least common. Accurate diagnostic assessment of patients suspected of having a cardiomyopathy is important to establish prognosis and to institute appropriate treatment. This talk will focus on salient echocardiographic features of primary cardiomyopathies, but may include discussion and description of none-primary cardiomyopathies for completeness.