Precision medicine and dilated cardiomyopathy

Abstract

As the most common cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is currently defined as a heart muscle disease which is characterized by left ventricular (LV) or biventricular dilation and systolic dysfunction at the exclusion of either pressure or volume overload or severe coronary artery disease sufficient to explain the dysfunction. For established DCM patients, treatment is directed at the major clinical manifestations of heart failure and arrhythmias, including pharmacological treatment, device therapies, and heart transplantation. But this traditional strategy is incompletely effective and untenable for the consistently high morbidity and mortality of DCM. Implementation of precision medicine in the field of DCM is expected to greatly improve the prognosis of patients and reduce the cost by shifting the current focus on disease treatment to prevention and individualized treatment. This chapter intends to summarize the progress of accurate medical diagnosis and treatment of dilated heart disease.