Left ventricular non-compaction: Underdiagnosed disease with fatal outcomes

Abstract

Left ventricular non compaction (LVNC) is a type of congenital cardiomyopathy characterized by the presence of prominent intertrabecular recesses that typically affect the apical portion of the left ventricular cavity. These recesses give a distinctive phenotype to the affected myocardium that has been described as “sponge-like”. Devastating complications have been observed in those patients with LVNC, including heart failure requiring heart transplantation in selected cases, life-threatening arrhythmias, thromboembolic events including stroke and transient ischemic attack and sudden cardiac death. This report follows the case of a 62-year-old female patient with recurrent chest pain for several years and extensive negative work and recent echocardiography showed increased left ventricle trabeculations, suspicious for LVNC, later confirmed by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR).