HYPERTROPHIC CARDIOMYOPATHY AS A MANIFESTATION OF CARDIAC SARCOIDOSIS

The present study aimed to clarify whether cardiac sarcoidosis causes changes that mimic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Eighty-two consecutive patients (35 men, 47 women), who were referred to the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, with a diagnosis of pulmonary and/or ocular sarcoidosis (average age, 49.5 years, range 20-74), underwent detailed clinical, electrocardiographic, and echocardiographic evaluations; in some patients, right and left heart catheterization, selective coronary artery cineangiography, and right and left endomyocardial biopsies were performed. Over a 15-month period of observation, 6 of these 82 patients (7.3%) were found to have echocardiographic abnormalities: increased thickness of the interventricular septum was found in 4 patients, asymmetric septal hypertrophy in 2, localized septal hypertrophy in 1 and apical hypertrophy in 1 patient. One patient had an 'ace-of-spades' deformity of the left ventricle. Cardiac sardoidosis can mimic, and even present as, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.