The largest ever study of dilated cardiomyopathy

Defining the genetics, biomarkers and outcomes for dilated cardiomyopathy: a prospective multi-centre study (GO-DCM)

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a disease of the heart muscle where it becomes stretched, thin and weak. This means the heart is unable to pump blood around the body efficiently. Treatments are limited and around one fifth of people with DCM die within five years of diagnosis, usually from heart failure or catastrophic faults in the heart’s electrical rhythm, which can result in cardiac arrest and sudden death. DCM can run in families, but in most cases we do not know the genes that cause it, and it's hard to predict which patients will develop the most severe disease. Now, a team of experts across the UK will run the largest ever DCM study of its kind. With the help of 2,000 people living with DCM, the researchers will gather more information than ever before about the condition using advanced genome sequencing, high-tech heart imaging and detailed protein studies. They will search for new genes that cause DCM, and will scan the heart to find out whether damage to heart muscle, such as scarring, predicts how people with DCM will be affected. The new insights from this project will help to find better ways to diagnose DCM, understand which patients are most at risk from severe disease, unlock clues to new treatments and ultimately prevent the condition.