Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center

Dr. Barry J. Maron has been Director of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation over the past 15 years. He was formerly Senior Investigator at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (for over 20 years) and has published more than 750 papers concerning: diagnosis, natural history and management of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy as well as expression of athlete's heart and its diagnostic distinction from primary cardiomyopathies, the causes of sudden death in competitive sports and other risks of the athletic field, and scientific and ethical issues related to preparticipation screening and criteria for disqualification from sports competition with cardiovascular disease. Dr. Maron was chairman of the recent ACC/ESC consensus panel on the management of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy as well as chair of 3 ACC Bethesda Conferences (#16, #26, #36) providing eligibility/disqualification recommendations for competitive athletes with cardiovascular abnormalities, and several AHA/ACC position papers on the definitions/ classifications and genetic profile of cardiomyopathies, guidelines for athlete screening and recreational sports participation for young patients with genetic cardiovascular diseases. He is the American College of Cardiology 2008 Distinguished Scientist Award recipient. Dr. Maron lives with his wife of 40 years on a lake in suburban Minneapolis. Both his sons are physicians engaged in cardiovascular medicine.

The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation (MHIF) Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center is designed to provide patients with a "State of the Art" evaluation. The Center is staffed by nationally-recognized cardiologists with a subspecialty expertise in the evaluation and treatment of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), supervised by Dr. Barry J. Maron, who has been involved extensively with HCM for almost 30 years. All currently accepted treatment modalities for patients with HCM are available through MHIF, including defibrillator implants and alcohol septal ablation.

Although a relatively common genetic cardiovascular disease, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) is uncommon in cardiology practice, particularly in comparison to coronary artery disease, which represents the primary focus of cardiologists. HCM presents a broad and complex disease spectrum that has caused some confusion among the many clinicians who have had limited prior experience with this disease. This is the advantage to being evaluated by cardiologists familiar with HCM.

There are several goals of a consultation in the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center. First, given the potentially misleading information about HCM to which patients are often exposed, patient and family education and genetic counseling regarding HCM, as it may pertain to the individual patient, is crucial. Of course, if there is any uncertainty about the diagnosis of HCM itself, this resolution has the highest priority.

A second important goal is the assessment of the individual patient and the HCM subgroup within which he or she belongs. This determination is relevant to anticipated clinical course, prognosis and treatment options, including determination of whether that patient is at unacceptably high risk for sudden death and a candidate for preventive measures.

If the HCM patient has limiting symptoms and disability from HCM, there are a number of potential therapies available. The Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center can provide recommendations regarding the optimal therapy to relieve or reduce symptoms, including drugs, interventional options such as surgery, pacemaker implantation or alcohol septal ablation.

Current Research

Sudden Death in Athletes

Investigator: Barry Maron, MD

Coordinators: Tammy Haas, RN, CCRC.; Sue Casey, RN

Events

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy International Summit IV

October 16-18, 2009, in Minneapolis, the fourth International Summit on Diagnosis and Management of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and Prevention of Sudden death: The Next 50 Years, was sponsored by the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation in recognition of the 50^th anniversary of this disease entity. Over this half-century hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) has persistently intrigued and challenged the cardiovascular community, and indeed has periodically been the source of misunderstanding and even controversy. The 3 prior HCM Summits, also held in Minneapolis were in 1999, 2002 and 2006 (with the meeting scheduled for September 12, 2001 cancelled).

Over the 2½ day period, 210 registrants from 13 countries and 24 states heard 37 lectures from an international faculty of 27 speakers. This unique program was dedicated to telling the expansive HCM “story” from basic molecular genetics to clinical presentation and natural history, to (most importantly) management options and decision-making… from the earliest studies in 1959 to the present context within contemporary cardiovascular medicine.

Click here to view presentations from the summit.