Open Access WJCS Cardiomyopathies in Tropical Countries: Causes and

Copyright © 2013 Jean-Etienne Touze, Laurent Fourcade. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background: Cardiomyopathy is the main cause of heart failure in developing countries, mainly in Africa. In those areas the concept of “tropical cardiomyopathy ” is still used to design all unexplained cardiomyopathy. The primary aim of this review is first to review the main etiologies of cardiomyopathies observed in tropical countries and second to gain a better understanding of the nosological place of the so-called “tropical cardiomyopathies ” in the current frame-work of cardiomyopathies. Methods and Results: We reviewed relevant references over the last forty years (June, 1976 to May 2012). Given literature data, endomyocardial fibrosis (EMF) is mainly diagnosed in sub-Saharan countries, as well as Brazil and India. Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is observed with a higher prevalence than in temperate countries. Sickle cell anemia does not induce specific cardiomyopathy in all echocardiographic studies. Malnutrition and chronic anemia can induce reversible cardiac dysfunction. Myocardial involvement in parasitic infections is re-stricted to Chagas disease and probably to human African trypanosomiasis. Helminthiasis is not involved in the patho-genesis of cardiomyopathy except for the deleterious effect of high eosinophilia induced by some endemic diseases (fi