Re: HOCM

Posted By CCF CARDIO MD-APS on October 05, 1998 at 07:56:15:

In Reply to: HOCM posted by Roger on October 03, 1998 at 04:32:19:






I have been diagnosed with HOCM and am being treated
with beta blockers. My question concerns my 6 year old
girl. I know this can be an inherited disease but I
don't know at what age my daughter can be tested. Would
an echo show anything in a child this age? Also, should
she avoid exercise until HOCM can be ruled out?
Thanks so much for this board. It must be a tremendous
amount of work but I think it's doing an equal amount
of good.



____


Dear Roger,
You are right, there are a number of types of inheritable HOCM. This in no way
means that your daughter  has it, let alone that she has to avoid all exercise
just in case she does.
Your best course of action Roger would be to have your daughter evaluated and
followed by a pediatric cardiologist who could do serial exams and echocardiograms
to evaluate your daughter's heart as she grows.  This would allow her to be as
active as she wants, and it would also allow her to be treated early if she does
develop HOCM.  As you may already know the large majority of sudden death occurences in
children are due to heart abnormalities such as HOCM, and often they are associated with
participation in athletic events.  It would of course be totally unneccesary to restrict
your daughter's activity however unless she has HOCM.  If it turns out there is no
structural heart abnormality now, ask the ped-cardiologist how often she should have follow
up echocardiograms (say for instance, only if her regular pediatrician hears a murmur in the ensuing years.)
Of course if that is the case, you would want to make sure the pediatrician did a thorough heart exam with each
follow up visit.  Good luck and write back if you have any further questions.
Information provided in the heart forum is intended for general medical informational purposes only, actual diagnosis
and treatment can only be made by your physician(s).