Frequency of familial nature of dilated cardiomyopathy and usefulness of cardiac transplantation in this subset.

A familial etiology was identified on the basis of family history in 16 (8.75%) of 184 patients undergoing cardiac transplantation at Stanford for endstage dilated cardiomyopathy (DC). These 16 patients, from 11 families, included 5 sibling pairs. To help determine optimal management of such patients, their case histories and posttransplant courses were reviewed. Mean age of patients at presentation was 23 +/- 15 years. In sibling pairs, duration of symptoms from onset to diagnosis was 14 +/- 5 weeks for the first sibling, but only 4 +/- 2 weeks for the second. Progressive cardiac enlargement was documented radiographically in siblings of transplant recipients in 2 families before the onset of symptoms. The posttransplant course with regard to rejection incidence, infectious complications, coronary artery disease and malignancy was similar to that of the 168 patients with nonfamilial DC. Actuarial survival at 5 years after transplantation was 80%. Thirteen patients (including all sibling pairs) are alive 1 to 11 years after transplantation. Sepsis was the cause of death in 3 patients, occurring during the early postoperative period in 2 and following retransplantation for graft atherosclerosis 7 years after the initial transplant in the third patient. Thus, diagnosis of DC in childhood or adolescence mandates evaluation and surveillance of family members, because this disease can progress rapidly. The favorable results of cardiac transplantation for familial DC suggest that it should be promptly considered for such patients with end-stage disease.