CARDIOMYOPATHY IN FOUR MEMBERS OF A FAMILY

Abstract

A mother and three of her four children with a cardiomyopathy are described one of them had also associated congenital heart disease. The reported families with cardiomyopathy are reviewed. The symptoms, with the grave liability to sudden death in early adult life, and the histological changes are not enough at present to decide if there are one or more entities making up the group. Even the types with obstructive cardiomyopathy simulating aortic stenosis may be a variety of the same condition. Probably this will not be settled till more is known about the metabolic abnormality of the heart muscle. Familial cardiomyopathy is generally inherited as an autosomal dominant Mendelian character.