Echocardiography Findings in Common Primary and Secondary Cardiomyopathies

Cardiomyopathy is a heterogeneous group of disorders of varying etiology. Heart failure from systolic and/or diastolic cardiac dysfunction is common to all. Certain disorders are distin‐ guished by life threatening arrhythmia. Onset of symptoms may be acute or progress from preclinical to symptomatic state over time and at a variable rate. Early recognition permits therapeutic intervention thereby retarding clinical progression and in some reversal or arrest of pathologic state. Echocardiography being the most frequently used and readily available cardiac imaging technique has established itself as the cardiac imaging modality of choice in diagnosis and longitudinal follow up of patients with cardiomyopathy. Complementary information from other imaging techniques, e.g., tissue characterization with cardiac MRI in iron overload states and evaluation of coronary anatomy with cardiac CT as in some cases of dilated cardiomyopathy, usually follows recognition of cardiomyopathy on echocardiogram.