Left ventricular shape in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy and cardiomyopathy with or without only mild ventricular dilatation

Abstract

Left ventricular (LV) dilatation and diffuse LV hypokinesia have been considered characteristic features of “congestive” cardiomyopathy, as originally described by Goodwin et al. 1 Since the mid-1970s, the term congestive cardiomyopathy has been increasingly replaced by “dilated cardiomyopathy.” Recently, Keren et al 2 called attention to an entity they designate “mildly dilated congestive cardiomyopathy,” defined as end-stage heart failure of unknown etiology occurring with neither typical hemodynamic findings of restrictive cardiomyopathy nor significant LV dilatation. They stated, “some of the patients in this series actually had cardiac dimensions within normal limits.” We undertook the present echocardiography study to: (1) ascertain whether mildly dilated or nondilated congestive cardiomyopathy does in fact exist in our population, and (2) compare LV shape in such patients with those in patients with typical dilated cardiomyopathy and in normal subjects.