This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by BLOOMFIELD, D. K. Articles by LIEBMAN, J. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by BLOOMFIELD, D. K. Articles by LIEBMAN, J.

(Circulation. 1963;27:1071.)
© 1963 American Heart Association, Inc.

---

Idiopathic Cardiomyopathy in Children

DANIEL K. BLOOMFIELD M.D.¹ JEROME LIEBMAN M.D.¹

¹ From the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics, Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

This report describes 27 cases of a clinical cardiomyopathic syndrome in clinically well children. Physical findings regularly observed include an abnormal left ventricular impulse, a prominent X and Y descent in the jugular venous pulse, and a characteristic, acquired, systolic murmur. These are associated with the laboratory findings of an enlarged left ventricle by electrocardiogram and x-ray. This syndrome may be the earliest manifestation of cardiomyopathic states, such as idiopathic myocardial hypertrophy or hypertrophic outflow tract obstruction, which usually appear in the third decade of life and beyond. The frequency of cases found suggests that the latter diseases, which are relatively rare, are possibly only the more malignant representatives of a broad spectrum of cardiomyopathic states.