3D Printing of Cardiomyopathy

Abstract

Cardiomyopathy is a disease which involves heart tissue and is characterized by abnormal heart structure, heart failure, and arrhythmia, with great heterogeneity and diversity [1]. Cardiomyopathy can be classified into primary cardiomyopathy and secondary cardiomyopathy, and primary cardiomyopathy can be further classified into three types according to the etiology and pathology: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), and restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCM). DCM and HCM are the two most common clinical phenotypes of primary cardiomyopathy, which are important causes of chronic heart failure and sudden cardiac death (SCD) in young patients. Dilated cardiomyopathy is the most common type of cardiomyopathy, accounting for approximately 60% of all the cases, and is more common in men than women, similar in adults and children. The incidence of dilated cardiomyopathy is approximately 7/100,000 per year, and it is most common among the 20-to-60-year-old age group. Obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy accounts for approximately two-thirds of all hypertrophic cardiomyopathy cases. Epidemiological studies show that the incidence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in the normal population is approximately 0.2% and has a clear family hereditary, but a considerable number of patients have no obvious clinical symptoms.