Heart Failure

Background information on heart failure:

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a group of disorders characterized broadly by cardiac dilation and pump dysfunction. This form of human heart failure is associated with a progressive, uniform dysfunction of the entire myocardium. Some forms of DCM are hereditary, indicating that genetic factors play a role. Yet a larger fraction of the patients are diagnosed with idiopathic DCM, indicating unknown causes for the disease.

Thus the challenge remains to identify the pieces of the intrinsic genetic and cellular puzzles that underlie these forms of acquired heart disease.