Dilated Cardiomyopathy More Likely to Occur in Blacks and Their First-Degree Family Members

Researchers recently investigated the prevalence and risk of familial dilated cardiomyopathy or DCM in Black and white patients, including their family members.

In a EurekAlert! report, it was specified that the study authors also noted that most studies had comprised whites, even though Blacks with the condition have a higher risk of heart failure-associated hospital admission and death. The researchers also believed most idiopathic or unidentified cause, "DCM has a genetic basis."

According to findings of multi-site research led by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine researchers, Black patients diagnosed with DCM of unidentified cause are more likely to have members in their family who are at risk of developing the said heart muscle disease, compared to white patients' families.

One 1st-Degree Member of Family Likely to Have DCM, Too

With the use of mathematical modeling techniques, the study investigators estimated that 30 percent of patients with DCM observed at a usual advanced heart failure program in the United States had at least one first-degree member of the family, either a child, parent or sibling, who has DCM.

The study published in the Journal of American Medical Association showed that when broken down by "self-identified race," approximately 39 percent of Black patients and 20% of white patients had at least one first-degree member of the family who has DCM.

According to cardiologist and division director of human genetics Dr. Ray Hershberger, at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, incorporating Black families into this DCM research was crucially essential, as most information "has only been available for white patients."

Dr. Hershberger, a researcher at the Dorothy M. Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute, added that their study shows that families of Black patients are at a higher risk for DCM than white patients. He elaborated they do not understand yet, all the reasons for this.

He continued it could be from variances in genetics, "comorbidities or social determinants of health." He explained that such an analysis, which only comprised clinical information, was not able to clarify that the genetic evaluation being currently completed will be available soon.

Dilated Cardiomyopathy

The five-year research involved over 1,200 patients with DCM, of which 44 percent were women; of these 1,220 patients, 43 percent were Black, and eight percent were Hispanic, along with over 1,690 of their first-degree relatives.

Essentially, DCM, which is detailed on the American Heart Association's website, is a health condition in which the weakening of the heart muscle weakens and enlarges the left ventricle. It is the most common cause of need of a heart transplant, not to mention accountable for about 50 percent of heart failure occurrences resulting from a weakened left ventricle. Past information has proposed that one in every 250 Americans suffers from DCM.

This condition can occur in family members at nearly any age, although the usual onset is the mid-40s. The illness's severity can vary within families, with members showing minor symptoms while others may die due to heart failure or arrhythmia that causes sudden cardiac death.

Symptoms of the condition would include shortness of breath with exertion, edema of the feet and legs, fatigue, an irregular heartbeat, or lethal arrhythmias.

As specified in this research, approximately one in every five first-degree family members of those with idiopathic DCM were at risk of developing the condition during their lifetime.

Related information about inherited cardiomyopathies is shown on Ambry Genetics' YouTube video below:

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