Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: a common disease with a good prognosis. Five year experience of a district general hospital.

The manifestations and workload in a district general hospital cardiac unit of 39 unselected cases of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy over a five year period are reported. The "typical" form with asymmetrical septal hypertrophy and a gradient was found in only one third of patients, serious ventricular arrhythmias were probably no more common than in the general population, and no deaths occurred during a relatively short follow up (mean 3.1 years). It is concluded that although hypertrophic cardiomyopathy occupies a not insignificant proportion of cardiac workload, unselected cases presenting to a district general hospital represent a relatively mild disease without a grave prognosis.