What should I ask my doctor about hypertrophic cardiomyopathy treatment?

Assessing the risk of sudden cardiac death is a patient’s most pressing question. Watch this video with thoracic surgeon Dr. Hiroo Takayama to learn why it’s also smart to discuss risk assessment for family members.

Transcript

00:00

In terms of screening of your family member, there are various genetic as well as

00:06

imaging tests available to screen your family member for this disease.

00:18

You should know what to ask when you are seeing a doctor for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

00:26

Two important things to ask to your cardiologist are one, treatment about yourself,

00:34

two, screening for your family member. And in terms of treatment of yourself,

00:42

the most important aspect is to ask the risk of sudden cardiac death about yourself.

00:49

And also, based on the risk stratification, you may or may not be advised to have defibrillator in place.

01:02

Also, important things are screening for left ventricular outflow tract obstruction, as well as the risk

01:11

of having a heart arrhythmia. Appropriate medication has to be tried

01:17

to relieve your symptoms and your clinical anatomical conditions. In terms of screening of your family member,

01:25

there are various genetic as well as imaging tests available to screen your family

01:32

member for this disease. This is extremely, extremely important. When it comes down to surgery, the surgery

01:40

entails septal myectomy, in which the thickened portion of the heart muscle is shaved off.

01:47

You should ask your surgeon about the experience of him or herself about this operation.

01:54

Though it sounds simple, this operation has to be done by a specialized surgeon who

02:03

has interest and training about this condition. [AUDIO LOGO]