Shifting the paradigm for the treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy.

Abstract

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) has emerged as a major health problem during the past two decades. In spite of recent advances, it has become clear that the underlying heart disease is relentlessly progressive in almost all patients who develop symptoms of overt failure; morbidity and mortality continues to be unacceptably high with an incidence of approximately 30% for death or hospital admission at one year. Cardiac transplantation remains the only current prospect for dramatically improving survival in many patients. Trying to enhance cardiac function during the later stages of heart failure is ultimately fruitless; it cannot be done over the long term. The solution to failure lies in defining and preventing its causes or arresting and reversing its evolution. We propose a model where the target for therapeutic intervention becomes the arrest of progressive myocardial disease throughout the course of the cardiomyopathy. In this paradigm, the selection of therapeutic agents for the treatment of heart failure takes into consideration both the stage of the disease and differences in pathogenesis. In addition it broadens our approach from one which focuses on enhancing myocardial function to one which encompasses strategies which are designed to inhibit the progressive loss of myocytes and the inexorable deterioration of the failing myocardium.