NEW CLASSIFICATION OF THE CARDIOMYOPATHIES
For more than three decades, heart muscle diseases have been classified into primary or idiopathic myocardial diseases (cardiomyopathies) and secondary discorders that have similar morphological appearances, but which are caused by an identifiable pathology such as coronary artery disease or myocardial infiltration (specific heart muscle diseases). In this document, The European Society of Cardiology Working group on Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases presents an update of the existing classification scheme. In this statement define a cardiomyopathies as myocardial discorder in which the heart muscle is structurally and functionally abnormal, in the absence of coronary artery disease, hypertension, valvular disease and congenital heart disease suffitient to cause the observed myocardial abnormality. Cardiomyopathies are gruoped into specific morphological and functional phenotypes; each phenotype is then subclassified into familial and non-familial forms. The aim is to help clinicians look beyond generic diagnostic labels in order reach more specific diagnoses heart muscle diseases.