Cardiomyopathies in children

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Target exams

Red flags

• A child or adolescent with cardiomyopathy who has a syncope, pre-syncope, chest pain on exertion, or palpitations has presumed risk for sudden cardiac death until stratified — restrict from sport and refer urgently to a cardiologist for ECG, Holter and echocardiography
• A first-degree relative of a patient with hypertrophic or arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy must never be labelled 'reassured' on a normal echocardiogram alone — genotype-negative does not exclude disease, and genotype-positive phenotype-negative relatives need lifelong surveillance
• Restrictive cardiomyopathy in a child carries the worst prognosis of all cardiomyopathy subtypes, with a high rate of sudden death and transplant; early transplant assessment is mandatory rather than prolonged medical therapy
• Dilated cardiomyopathy presenting in infancy may be inborn errors of metabolism or a treatable supraventricular tachycardia (tachycardiomyopathy) — a sustained heart rate above 200 in a baby with poor function must have tachyarrhythmia actively excluded

Life stages

Care settings

Clinical exam formats

Board mappings

• Cardiomyopathies in children
• Paediatric cardiomyopathies: classification, genetics, and sudden cardiac death
• Cardiomyopathy: classification, family screening, and management
• Short case: the child with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
• Long case: the child with dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure
• Cardiomyopathies
• Cardiomyopathies in children: morphology, genetics, and management
• Cardiac: heart failure and murmur in a child
• Cardiology: cardiomyopathies
• Patient Care: cardiomyopathy and heart failure in children
• Medical Expert: paediatric cardiomyopathy