Abstract
Background: The prevalence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM)
can be silent and can present with sudden death as the first
manifestation of this disease. The goal of this study was to evaluate
any association between reported physical symptoms with the presence of
suspected HCM.
Method: The Anthony Bates Foundation has been performing
screening echocardiography across the United States for the prevention
of sudden death since 2001. A total of 4,120 subjects between the ages
of 6 and 79 underwent echocardiographic screening. We evaluated any
association between any symptoms and suspected HCM defined as any left
ventricular wall thickness ≥ 15 mm.
Results: The total prevalence of suspected HCM in the entire
study population was 1.1%. The presence of physical symptoms were not
associated with HCM (chest pain in 4.3% of participant with HCM vs.
9.9% of the control, p=0.19, palpitation in 4.3% of participant with
HCM vs. 7.3% of the control., p=0.41, shortness of breath in 6.4% of
participant with HCM vs. 11.7% of the control.,
p=0.26, lightheadedness in 4.3% of participant with HCM vs. 13.1% of
the control., p=0.07, ankle swelling in 2.1% of participant with HCM
vs. 4.0% of the control., p=0.52, dizziness in 8.5% of participant
with HCM vs. 12.2% of the control., p=0.44).
Conclusion: Echocardiographic presence of suspected HCM is
not associated with a higher prevalence of physical symptoms in the
participants undergoing screening echocardiography. This finding
confirmed that HCM can be asymptomatic in many patients and a
questionnaire cannot distinguish the HCM population from a control
group.