HOUSTON, TX--Doctors and researchers at the Texas Heart Institute are recruiting patients to participate in a clinical trial they hope will lead the way to prevent and reverse hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the most common genetic heart disease, and a common cause of sudden cardiac death in young people, especially young athletes.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is genetically transmitted, causes a thickening of the heart muscle and causes the heart muscle to function abnormally. It can affect people of any age. Often, there are no symptoms in young people and the first sign of the undiagnosed disease can be sudden cardiac death. The condition can also cause disabling cardiac symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pains, palpitations, and fainting. It is also an important cause of cardiac complications in the elderly.
Current medicines used to treat patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy treat symptoms and reduce the risk of sudden cardiac death, but none reverses the disease.
Texas Heart Institute researchers, in a small randomized group of 75 patients over 12 months, will study use of the drug, N-Acetylcysteine, or NAC, commonly used as an anti-oxidant and to treat cystic fibrosis patients because of its ability to break down mucus in the body. Previous tests in animals showed NAC helped reduce thickening of the heart muscle and fibrosis in heart muscle tissue, and improved cardiac dysfunction which causes shortness of breath and exercise intolerance.
“Given that there is no effective pharmacological therapy for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, we are excited and hope that our colleagues will share our enthusiasm in testing the beneficial effects of this safe medication in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy,” said the trial’s principal investigator, A.J. Marian, M.D., a Texas Heart Institute researcher and professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
SOURCE: Texas Heart Institute