ehealthyland.com

In restrictive cardiomyopathy, the heart is of normal size or only slightly enlarged. However, it cannot relax normally during the time between heartbeats when the blood returns from the body to the heart (diastole).

Later in the disease, the heart may not pump blood efficiently. The abnormal heart function can affect the lungs, liver, and other body systems. Restrictive cardiomyopathy may affect either or both ventricles. It may be associated with a disease of the heart muscle.

The most common causes of restrictive cardiomyopathy are amyloidosis and scarring of the heart from an unknown cause (idiopathic myocardial fibrosis). It frequently occurs after a heart transplant.

Causes Of Restrictive Cardiomyopathy

1.Tumors of the heart
2.Scleroderma
3.Sarcoidosis
4.Radiation fibrosis
5.Diseases of the heart lining (endocardium), such as endomyocardial fibrosis and Loeffler’s syndrome (rare)
6.Carcinoid heart disease

Restrictive cardiomyopathy is often caused by diseases in other parts of the body.

One known cause is cardiac amyloidosis, which is sometimes associated with cancers of the blood. Amyloidosis is a condition that causes proteins from certain blood cells (called amyloid deposits) to build up in the heart tissue, making the tissue stiff and thickened. Cardiac amyloidosis is also called “stiff heart syndrome.”

Another known cause is a disorder called hemochromatosis. This disorder is passed down through family members and results in a buildup of iron in the body.

Sarcoidosis is the name of an inflammatory disease that starts as tiny, grain-like lumps called granulomas, which most often appear in your lungs or lymph nodes. The granulomas can clump together and form larger lumps that attack other organs. Sarcoidosis often affects your skin, eyes, or liver, but it can cause restrictive cardiomyopathy. In other cases, diseases create deposits that can make the heart walls thick and stiff.

Another term for restrictive cardiomyopathy is infiltrative cardiomyopathy, because it is the “infiltration” of different materials, such as the amyloids or the granulomas, in the heart that lead to the cardiomyopathy.

Restrictive cardiomyopathy can also result from scarring of the heart, caused by a heart attack.