Hemochromatosis heart disease: an unemphasized cause of potentially reversible restrictive cardiomyopathy.
Cardiac involvement in hemochromatosis typically results in congestive cardiomyopathy; a restrictive cardiomyopathy due to hemochromatosis is distinctly rare. A restrictive cardiomyopathy, which developed in the patient described in this report, was due to hemochromatosis which mimicked constrictive pericarditis clinically, echocardiographically and hemodynamically, and resulted in a thoracotomy for attempted surgical therapy. The fact that hemochromatosis represents the only cause of a restrictive cardiomyopathy that is potentially reversible by medical therapy makes early recognition of hemochromatosis heart disease important.
D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004452:Echocardiography; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006432:Hemochromatosis / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D010494:Pericarditis, Constrictive / Q000175:diagnosis