What are the symptoms of dilated cardiomyopathy in late stage

Dilated cardiomyopathy has a great impact on heart function, because it will continue to expand the heart's ventricles, leading to a continuous decline in heart function. The symptoms of dilated cardiomyopathy are clearly noticeable to patients. If the following symptoms occur, they should be examined and diagnosed in a timely manner.

The characteristics of dilated cardiomyopathy are obvious enlargement of the left ventricle (mostly) or right ventricle, accompanied by varying degrees of myocardial hypertrophy and decreased ventricular contractile function, with cardiac enlargement, heart failure, arrhythmia and embolism as basic features. It was previously called congestive cardiomyopathy. This disease is often accompanied by arrhythmia and has a high mortality rate.

The disease has a slow onset and can occur at any age, but is more common in people aged 30 to 50 years old. Hereditary DCM develops earlier. The course of DCM can be divided into three stages:

1. Asymptomatic period

Physical examination was normal, X-ray examination showed mild heart enlargement, electrocardiogram showed nonspecific changes, echocardiography measured left ventricular end-diastolic diameter of 5-6.5 cm, and ejection fraction between 40% and 50%.

2. Symptomatic Stage

The main symptoms are extreme fatigue, weakness, shortness of breath, palpitations, etc., early diastolic gallop rhythm, echocardiography measures the left ventricular end-diastolic diameter as 6.5~7.5cm, and the ejection fraction is between 20%~40%.

3. Late stage of the disease

Symptoms of congestive heart failure such as hepatomegaly, edema, and ascites can be relatively stable or recurrent for several years to more than ten years, or they can progressively worsen and lead to death within a short period of time. Most patients have various arrhythmias, and some patients suffer from thromboembolism or sudden death.