This section is on feline cardiac topics. These are all questions that have been submitted or that I have been inspired to talk about because of a question submitted. If you have any topics that you would like to have discussed please feel free to email me with the topic or question.
Hyper means too much, trophic means size, cardio means heart, myo means muscle, pathy means something abnormal and bad. Thus, this condition is characterized by heart muscle that gets abnormally large causing bad thing to happen. In cats, the cause of this condition is unclear -- it appears to be a problem with the muscle cells themselves. The muscle cells get larger and larger causing the wall of the heart to get bigger and bigger reducing the amount of space for the blood to some into. Imagine taking a glass and keeping it the same size but making all the sides three inches thick -- you can put a lot less water into the glass. That is what happens to the heart. The muscle can contract just fine in fact the heart is VERY strong but it simply cannot get enough blood into the heart to pump out. This forces blood to remain in the veins causing fluid buildup. It also causes the body to receive less oxygen and nutrients. HCM is increasing in frequency and there is no successful treament or preventation.
I have researched and answered these questions to the best of my ability. But I am human and make mistakes. If there is any part of my answer that you feel is incorrect, please let me know. The last thing I want is to disseminate false or incorrect information.