Variable prognosis in congestive cardiomyopathy. Role of left ventricular function, alcoholism, and pulmonary thrombosis.

Prognosis of 36 patients with congestive cardiomyopathy was studied in relation to various clinical factors. Half life of the survival curve after overt heart failure was about 7 years. Although left ventricular function was a major determinant of clinical course in congestive cardiomyopathy in general, its relation to prognosis was variable according to the type of cardiac involvement. In peripartal cardiomyopathy and in a type of cardiomyopathy named subacute cardiomyopathy with pulmonary thrombosis in this paper, factor(s) other than left ventricular function, possibly including pulmonary thrombosis, may be operative as more important determinant of extremely poor prognosis in these subtypes. Alcoholic cardiomyopathy was also unique in its favorable prognosis in association with reversible cardiomegaly following abstention from alcohol.