title: [Spongy cardiomyopathy in an elderly woman. Echocardiographic description].
abstract: Isolated left ventricular noncompaction, also known as spongy myocardium or spongy cardiomyopathy, is a recently described congenital disease caused by an arrest in the left ventricular myocardial embriogenesis that makes the ventricular wall to persist thickened with multiple trabecular formations and deep sinusoidal recesses. It is clinically characterized by heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia and systemic embolic events. Most of the affected subjects are detected during childhood or adolescence, others in the adult life but very few elderly patients have been reported in the worldwide medical literature. We here report the case of a 75-year-old woman that is one of the oldest patients ever reported, whose clinical picture and echocardiographic findings are typical of this modality of cardiomyopathy. We do comments on this case in regard to the most relevant facts that appear in the limited medical literature about this interesting disease.
authors.affiliation: Escuela de Medicina de la Universidad de Sonora y Servicio de Cardiología del Hospital General del Estado de Sonora. jcanale@infosel.net.mx
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Canale
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cortés Lawrenz
authors.forename: Francisco Germán
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Moreno Valenzuela
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000150:complications* / Q000151:congenital / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D018618:Echocardiography, Doppler, Color; D005260:Female; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology*; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans