Principles of treatment for dilated cardiomyopathy

  Once a patient is diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, especially when arrhythmias and heart failure occur, the corresponding treatment should be carried out in a timely manner. To alleviate the condition of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, improve the quality of life, prolong the survival time and reduce the death rate, a variety of therapeutic measures have been explored through long-term medical practice, which are summarized in the following treatment principles.  1, restrict physical activity, low salt, low fat diet, eliminate or reduce viral infection, hypertension, diabetes, alcohol consumption and other factors that can make the condition worse.  2. Appropriate application of myocardial nutritional drugs, such as coenzyme Q10, vitamin C, vitamin B1, fructose diphosphate, etc. Targeted treatment according to different types of arrhythmias.  3, heart failure treatment: conventional treatment methods (such as cardiac, diuretic, vasodilator, etc.) can be used, but special attention should be paid to cardiac drug digoxin dosage should be small, and need to be closely observed to prevent toxic effects. In recent years, the application of β-blockers in the treatment of this disease with heart failure has achieved some success and experience.  The more clinically used is betalactam (metoprolol), and in order to be safe and effective, five principles must be followed under the guidance of a physician.  (1) the patient is hemodynamically stable (e.g., normal blood pressure), has no cardiac conduction obstruction, and has a heart rate of no less than 50 beats per minute at rest; (2) the drug is administered in small doses; (3) the incremental dose should be slow (usually increased after 1-2 weeks); (4) long-term treatment is required (usually 2-4 weeks for improvement of dyspnea and more than 1 year for significant efficacy); (5) the drug should not be stopped abruptly (to prevent “withdrawal syndrome”, making the condition worse).  4, cardiac pacing therapy: for patients with intractable heart failure, biventricular cardiac pacing and right ventricular dual-site synchronous pacing have been used in China to achieve better results.  5, heart “bariatric surgery” (i.e. “left ventricular partial resection”) for the treatment of advanced patients, is a new breakthrough in the surgical treatment of this disease. Compared with heart transplantation, this method has the advantages of no donor, less cost and simpler postoperative treatment.  Cardiac pacing and cardiac “bariatric” surgical treatment can improve the prognosis and survival rate of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy.