National recognition:
Cleveland Clinic is nationally ranked for its heart care and recognized as a world leader in cardiovascular care.
Climbing the stairs shouldn’t feel like you’re scaling a mountain. But these days, going up one flight pushes you to your limits.
You chalk it up to not exercising enough or stressing the small things — and vow to make changes. A heart condition like cardiomyopathy (a heart muscle that’s too thick) never crosses your mind. But then, one night, your heart does cartwheels in your chest when you’re watching TV. You have a sinking feeling that something’s just not right.
Cardiomyopathy is sneaky — symptoms don’t always show up right away. But when they do, they can hit fast. It’s easy to brush off how you feel or delay a checkup, but cardiomyopathy won’t wait—and it won’t improve without care. Cleveland Clinic’s heart specialists are world-renowned for treating even the most complex cases. They’ll pinpoint what’s wrong and create a treatment plan tailored to you.
Cleveland Clinic is nationally ranked for its heart care and recognized as a world leader in cardiovascular care.
Our specialists have the top-notch skills and expertise needed to diagnose and manage the most complex heart conditions. They’ve seen it all, from the ordinary to the unusual, and they’re prepared to help you. Every year, people travel from all 50 states and around the world to get heart and vascular treatment due to our excellent outcomes and compassionate care.
Cleveland Clinic has one of the largest cardiovascular centers in the U.S. We’ve treated millions of people. What’s rare to others, we see every day, which means we have the experience and knowledge to give you the personalized care you need.
When you get care at Cleveland Clinic, you trust your heart to a team of healthcare providers who are the best at what they do. Your team will work together to find what’s wrong, customize treatment to your needs and help you take an active role in your care. Meet our team.
We put you first and it shows. Our team gets top marks on satisfaction surveys — and our patients say they’d recommend Cleveland Clinic to others. We know there’s a lot to getting heart treatment, including insurance and billing questions. Our financial navigators can help guide you through all of the paperwork related to your care.
We’re here for you in person and virtually. We’ll let you know when a virtual visit is an option. You’ll get the same excellent care without having to leave your house.
We know the process of getting a diagnosis can be stressful. We can’t make all the worries go away, but we can use the latest technology and our team’s expertise to find out what’s going on. Learning what’s happening inside your body — and putting a name to it — is the first step toward feeling better.
A cardiomyopathy is aptly described by its name. “Cardio-” means heart. “-Myo-” stands for muscle (in this case, the heart muscle or myocardium). “-Pathy” means something bad or damaging. When you have a cardiomyopathy, it means your heart muscle has stiffened, thickened or enlarged.
When this happens, your heart can’t pump blood throughout your body as effectively as it should. Cardiomyopathies also weaken your heart over time, causing irregular heartbeats or even heart failure.
Our skilled heart specialists and surgeons treat all forms of cardiomyopathies, from the most common to the more complex. Some cardiomyopathies are considered familial (inherited through changes in genes across generations). These include:
Other cardiomyopathies we treat include:
The “first” of anything is often stressful, even when you know it’s going to help you. If you’re nervous coming into your appointment with us, we’ll do everything we can to put you at ease. When you call to book an appointment, you’ll connect with our dedicated team of heart, vascular and thoracic scheduling experts who will guide you through what you’ll need for your first visit.
When you arrive for your appointment, a nurse will do blood pressure and heart rate checks. Then, you’ll see one of our heart specialists. You can expect to spend some time chatting about how you’re feeling, including your symptoms and how they’re affecting your daily routine. And we’ll go over your medical history to learn more about your overall health.
We’ll also want to learn about any history of heart disease among your biological family members. It’s OK if you don’t remember all the details. Sharing what you know can shed light on your risk because some cardiomyopathies run in families.
During your visit, we’ll do a physical exam and order tests. Some tests are noninvasive. Others may be invasive, which means we’ll need to make a small needle puncture or insert a catheter (tiny tube) inside your blood vessels.
Tests you may need to diagnose and manage cardiomyopathy include:
You may also have different types of stress tests, such as an exercise stress echocardiogram or exercise stress metabolic cardiogram, so we can check how well your heart pumps blood and how blood flows in your heart. We’ll go over all test results with you and your family member and make a shared decision about your care.
We understand you may have a local cardiologist — but getting a second opinion can give you the peace of mind you need to move forward with treatment. Cleveland Clinic can provide expert second opinions. Our team is here to listen to your concerns, answer your questions and help you reach the treatment decision that’s best for you. We encourage second opinions so you can be 100% confident in your care team and your care plan — even if you don’t plan to receive care at Cleveland Clinic.
Want a second opinion without the need to travel? Our virtual second opinions connect you with an expert without the need to leave home. You’ll get the guidance you need to help you move forward with confidence.
Teamwork is at the heart of what we do at Cleveland Clinic. You’ll have many specialists on your side as you navigate life with cardiomyopathy. Your dedicated team may include:
Our healthcare providers see patients at convenient locations throughout Northeast Ohio and Florida.
Treatment can slow the progression, help ease your symptoms and reduce your risk of complications of cardiomyopathy. When you receive care at Cleveland Clinic, you’ll have access to the latest diagnostic tests and tools, therapies and clinical research trials — some of which aren’t widely available elsewhere.
We’ll personalize care to your needs, focusing on the type of cardiomyopathy you have and how far along it is. If you have a local cardiologist, you can rest assured our team will work alongside them to manage your care.
You can strengthen your heart by making significant changes in lifestyle choices. We’ll work with you to come up with the best approach, which may include developing a heart-healthy eating plan or a safe exercise program.
Medications can help blood flow better through your heart and body and also ease your symptoms. We use guideline-directed medical therapy, which includes:
Depending on your needs, we may also prescribe the best combination of medication to:
Your heart might need a little extra help to stay in a regular rhythm or pump out blood to your body. Our team will let you know when that’s the case and help you choose the right device, such as a:
Medications and devices might be enough to treat your cardiomyopathy. But you may need a procedure or surgery to manage really bad symptoms or problems with how your heart works.
If your heart muscle is too thick, we can carefully remove part of the tissue to improve blood flow through your heart (septal myectomy). We can also do minimally invasive procedures, like alcohol septal ablation or catheter ablation, to target damaged tissue that’s keeping your heart from working as it should. Sometimes, cardiomyopathies damage your heart valves. If that happens, we can sometimes repair or replace those valves without surgery using percutaneous (endovascular) procedures.
Other times, we may need to do heart surgery, which may include a bypass or valve repair or replacement. In rare cases — and as a last resort when other treatments aren’t enough — we have the skills and experience to give you a new heart with a heart transplant.
When you have a familial cardiomyopathy, we offer the full spectrum of care for you and your loved ones. This includes genetic testing and counseling for you and screening for your family members.
Managing cardiomyopathy is a lifelong commitment on your part — and ours. We’re in this with you for the long haul. We’ll do everything we can to help you stick with your treatment plan and put your heart health first. Whether you need a provider to explain a test result, talk through treatment options or simply listen to you vent, we’re ready and willing to be on your team, for life.
Sometimes, the care you need isn’t in your backyard. We understand it can feel overwhelming when you’re traveling a long distance for treatment. Cleveland Clinic has multiple attached parking garages and affordable valet services at our buildings. We also provide free shuttle services from nearby hotels. When it comes to places to stay, you have numerous options of hotels and Airbnbs®.
We’ll help you handle the logistics, whether it’s finding a place to stay or figuring out transportation while you’re here. We can also help with the nitty-gritty details of finding your way around Cleveland Clinic and getting where you need to be at the right time.
If you’re traveling internationally, there’s even more planning and added layers of stress. Our experienced and caring Global Patient Services (GPS) team will help you make your way through Cleveland Clinic. They’ll connect you with your providers and make appointments. They also offer language translation services. And once you’re back home, they’ll coordinate your follow-up care.
We know living with a long-term condition like cardiomyopathy isn’t easy. At times, it may feel like a long and rocky trek up a mountain — but we’ll be climbing right along with you as you set new goals and reach new heights, one step at a time. Trusting your care to us means we’ll carry you through the most difficult parts of your treatment and celebrate each milestone. Helping you get your heart healthy enough for the things you need — and love — to do is our top priority.
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