Alcohol septal ablation in elderly patients: Is it as effective as in young patients?

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common genetic abnormality that can occur in as many as 1 in 500 persons. Researchers have found multiple mutations in 10 different sarcomeric proteins such as myosin heavy chain and tropomyosin can cause this disease. HCM is the most common monogenic cardiac disorder and the most common cause of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in children and ad-olescent. Patients with obstructive HCM typically com-plain of dyspnea, angina, nearsyncope and/or syncope on exertion. Patients with non-obstructive HCM rarely pr-esent with these symptoms or the symptoms are milder. At present, the risk factors for SCD are young age, syncope, a malignant family history, sustained ventricular tachycar-dia in electrophysiologic testing or holler monitoring and severe hypertrophy with significant left ventricular ( LV) outflow obstruction.