Cardiomyopathy refers to heart muscle disease. The damaged heart does not effectively pump blood. The disease usually progresses to the point where patients develop life-threatening heart failure . In addition, people with cardiomyopathy are more likely to have irregular heartbeats or arrhythmias .
There are two major categories of cardiomyopathy: ischemic and nonischemic cardiomyopathy. Ischemic cardiomyopathy occurs when the heart muscle is damaged from heart attacks due to coronary artery disease . Nonischemic cardiomyopathy, the less common category, includes types of cardiomyopathy that are not related to coronary artery disease.
There are three main types of nonischemic cardiomyopathy: