Treatment

• Cardiomyopathy treatments depend on the severity of the disease. It can be treated with drugs, implanted devices or with a heart transplant.
  
  

Causes of Cardiomyopathy

• Some of the causes of cardiomyopathy include high blood pressure, heart attack, fast heart rate, coronary artery disease, diabetes, alcoholism, drug abuse, pregnancy, chemotherapy, valvular disease and specific viruses.
  
  

Types

• There are three kinds of cardiomyopathy: dilated, hypertrophic and restrictive.
  
  

Symptoms

• Some symptoms of cardiomyopathy are feeling tired, swollen lower extremities, loss of breath even when resting, feeling dizzy and enlargement of the abdomen due to a fluid accumulation.
  
  

Diagnosis

• Cardiomyopathy may be diagnosed using one or several of the following tests: sonography of the heart, X-ray of the chest, EKG, biopsy of the heart's cells, blood tests and kidney function tests.