Simple Measurement Can Reveal Those at Risk of Enlarged Heart

A simple measurement of heart wall thickness can predict who is most at risk of a genetic disorder that is the leading cause of sudden death in athletes and young people, researchers at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation and Galliera Hospital in Genoa, Italy, report in today’s New England Journal of Medicine. The disorder is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy--an enlarged heart.

At-risk patients could be fitted with implantable defibrillators, which can shock a spasmodic heart back to life. The team used echocardiography, a routine ultrasound test, on 480 patients ages 1 to 89 to measure the maximum wall thickness of the heart’s left ventricle. They calculated that those with thickness of more than 1.2 inches face a 40% chance of fatal cardiac arrest over 20 years.

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--Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II