DILATED CARDIOMYOPATHY

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is the most frequent form of primary card iomyopathy with a large proportion of undiagnosed, asymptomatic course s. Although the aetiology in many cases remains undefinable, DCM is pr esumably the uniform, common outcome of myocardial damage due to a lar ge number of toxic, metabolic or infectious causes. As a rule, clinica lly manifest DCM is a serious myocardial disease with a poor prognosis in which it is difficult to predict the course or the efficiency of t reatment.