Ischemic Cardiomyopathy: Contemporary Clinical Management

Ischemic cardiomyopathy, disease of the heart muscle due to coronary artery disease, is the most common cardiomyopathy. It is often difficult to discern the etiology of heart failure, and often there are multiple underlying causes. Ischemic cardiomyopathy most often presents with a dilated morphology with wall motion defects and a history of previous myocardial infarction or confirmed coronary artery disease. Mechanisms of myocardial depression in ischemia are necrosis of myocardial cells resulting in irreversible loss of function or reversible damage, either short term through myocardial stunning or long term through hibernation. In ischemic cardiomyopathy, echocardiography may be extended with stress testing or other imaging modalities such as myocardial scintigraphy and cardiac magnetic resonance tomography. Coronary angiography is often considered a gold standard; however, other modalities such as positron emission tomography can be needed to detect small vessel disease. Cardiac revascularization, through percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary artery bypass grafting, both in acute coronary syndrome and in stable coronary artery disease, relieves symptoms and improves prognosis. Therapy should aspire to treat ischemia, arrhythmias in addition to heart failure management, which includes device therapy with cardiac resynchronization therapy, implantable cardioverter defibrillators, and mechanical support as bridging or destination therapy in end-stage disease