Grant: Project Grant

Non-ischemic cardiomyopathy is a disease causing a weakening of the heart muscle. It is common, affecting one person in 250 and is responsible for 1 in 10 sudden cardiac deaths and 1 in 3 heart failures. Since it has genetic causes, it can run in families. Despite being common, our capacity to predict who will get adverse outcomes is limited. This includes knowing who will be affected in a family and who, of those affected, will have a severe disease. This ability to determine who will have bad outcomes has become particularly important since effective therapies exist for affected individuals and those at risk. However, since these therapies can have side effects, selecting who is the most likely to benefit is important to ensure we treat the right individuals. This project aims to improve the prediction of adverse outcomes in non-ischemic cardiomyopathy to offer a personalized approach to treatment. We propose a large study that will include patients affected by non-ischemic cardiomyopathy from many hospitals in Canada. The study has 2 main goals: 1-Predicting who will suffer from sudden cardiac death. By predicting who will suffer from this dramatic outcome, it will be easier for clinicians and patients to decide if an invasive preventive therapy (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) is needed. 2- Predicting who will suffer from a more severe deterioration of the heart function. This will help decide when the medical therapy should be initiated and if patients should be referred to specialized clinics. By offering a personalized approach, this study has the potential to greatly improve the care of patients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy.