Background:
Increasing penetration of high spatial resolution cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging into routine cardiovascular practice has resulted in more frequent identification of a subset of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) patients with thin-walled, scarred left ventricular (LV) apical aneurysms. Prior experience involved relatively small numbers of patients with short follow-up and therefore the risk associated with this subgroup remains incompletely defined. Therefore, we assembled a large HCM cohort with LV apical aneurysms and long-term follow-up in order to clarify clinical course and prognosis.
Methods and Results:
Of 2,400 HCM patients, 60 (2.5%) were identified by CMR with LV apical aneurysm, 24 to 86 years of age, including 19 (32%) <45 years old; 70% male, and followed for 5.6 ± 3.5 years. Over the follow-up period, 24 patients experienced 31 adverse disease-related complications including: appropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator discharge for VT/VF (n=11), received or listed for heart transplant (n=6), heart failure death (n=5), nonfatal thromboembolic events (n=4), resuscitated out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (n=3), and sudden death (n=2). In addition, an intracavitary thrombus was identified in the apical aneurysm in 9 patients without a thromboembolic history. Combined HCM-related death and aborted life threatening event rate was 8.6% per year, nearly 6-fold greater than the 1.5% annual mortality rate reported in the general HCM population.
Conclusions:
Patients with LV apical aneurysms represent a high-risk subgroup within the diverse HCM spectrum, associated with substantial increased risk for disease-related morbidity and mortality, including advanced heart failure, thromboembolic stroke and sudden death. Identification of this unique HCM phenotype should prompt consideration for primary prevention ICD, and anticoagulation for stroke prophylaxis.
The upside down heart: inverse gradient in a midventricular hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with apical aneurysm
