title: Clinical Characteristics and Treatment of Cardiomyopathies in Children.
abstract: Cardiomyopathies are diseases of the heart muscle, a term introduced in 1957 to identify a group of myocardial diseases not attributable to coronary artery disease. The definition has since been modified to refer to structural and or functional abnormalities of the myocardium where other known causes of myocardial dysfunction, such as systemic hypertension, valvular disease and ischemic heart disease, have been excluded. In this review, we discuss the pathophysiology, clinical assessment and therapeutic strategies for hypertrophic, dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies, with a particular focus on aspects unique to children.
authors.affiliation: Lillie Frank Abercrombie Section of Pediatric Cardiology, Section of Critical Care Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, 6621 Fannin MC19345C, Houston. jfprice@texaschildrens.org.
authors.forename: Jack F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Price
authors.forename: Aamir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jeewa
authors.forename: Susan W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Denfield
mesh_terms: D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004232:Diuretics; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D006984:Hypertrophy
chemical_list: D004232:Diuretics