Cardiomyopathy

Cardiomyopathy literally means "heart muscle" (Myo= muscle, pathy= disease) It is the deterioration of the function of the myocardium (i.e., the actual heart muscle) for any reason. People with cardioyopathy are often at rick of arrhythmia and/or sudden cardiac death.

Extrinsic cardiomyopathies

These are cardiomyopathies where the primary pathology is outside the myocardium itself. Most cardiomyopathies are extrinsic, because by far the most common cause of a cardiomyopathy is ischemia. The World Health Organization calls these specific cardiomyopathies:

• Congenital heart disease
  
• Nutritional diseases
• Ischemic (or non-ischaemic) cardiomyopathy
• Hypertensive cardiomyopathy
• Valvular cardiomyopathy
• Inflammatory cardiomyopathy
• Cardiomyopathy secondary to a systemic metabolic disease
• Alcoholic cardiomyopathy
• Diabetic cardiomyopathy
• Restrictive cardiomyopathy