Incidence of dilated cardiomyopathy

Summary Full reliable data on the incidence and prevalence of dilated cardiomyopathy are not available. In the United States, at least 0.7% of cardiac deaths are attributable to cardiomyopathy. Dilated cardiomyopathy probably contributes the great majority of these cases. The mortality rate for cardiomyopathy in males is twice that of females, and for blacks it is 2.4 times that of whites. Cardiomyopathy was diagnosed in 0.67% of patients discharged from hospitals in 1979 with diagnoses of disease of the circulatory system. Cardiomyopathy accounted for 1% of general cardiologists' and for 7% of academic cardiologists' patient encounters. In Scandinavia, population surveys suggested an annual incidence of dilated cardiomyopathy ranging from 0.73 to 7.5 cases per 100,000 population; for Tokyo this figure is 2.6. The prevalence of cardiomyopathy in underdeveloped and in tropical countries is considerably higher than in developed countries.