Another cause of an arrhythmia is a heart condition called cardiomyopathy. Cardiomyopathy is a condition characterized by diseased heart muscle that gradually becomes enlarged and stretched, causing the heart muscle to become a weak pump.

With cardiomyopathy, abnormal electrical conduction may occur in any of the four heart chambers as a result of the enlarged muscle. The patient with cardiomyopathy is at risk for atrial and ventricular tachycardias. 

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy refers to a thickened heart muscle. Because of the prevalence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (1/500) in the general population, assessment of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy plays an important part of the evaluation of arrhythmias.

We have established a collaborative program with Interventional Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery at Stanford and offer septal alcohol catheter ablation and myomectomy surgery in the treatment of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Stanford's Cardiomyopathy Center

The Cardiomyopathy Center is a unique integration of medical, device, and surgical techniques for the treatment of heart failure. Patients are collaboratively discussed on a regular basis, providing a unique integrative approach to cardiomyopathy and heart failure therapy. We have broad experience with implantation of resynchronization and biventricular pacing devices.

We are currently involved in a number of resynchronization clinical studies with new devices or devices for new patient indications.We have a program for specialized imaging for evaluation of myocardial scar using MRI. We are also developing a program for genetic analysis of patients with idiopathic cardiomyopathies.