Epidemiology of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy–Related Death

Abstract

Background—Death resulting from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), particularly when sudden, has been reported to be largely confined to young persons. These data emanated from tertiary HCM centers with highly selected referral patterns skewed toward high-risk patients. Methods and Results—The present analysis was undertaken in an international population of 744 consecutively enrolled and largely unselected patients more representative of the overall HCM spectrum. HCM-related death occurred in 86 patients (12%) over 8±7 years (mean±SD). Three distinctive modes of death were as follows: (1) sudden and unexpected (51%; age, 45±20 years); (2) progressive heart failure (36%; age, 56±19 years); and (3) HCM-related stroke associated with atrial fibrillation (13%; age, 73±14 years). Sudden death was most common in young patients, whereas heart failure– and stroke-related deaths occurred more frequently in midlife and beyond. However, neither sudden nor heart failure–related death showed a statistically significa...