Hypothyroid hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Abstract

The authors report a 67-year-old woman with severe hypothyroidism who presented with clinical features of heart failure. Echocardiogram showed pericardial effusion and asymmetric septal hypertrophy. After 3 months of thyroxin therapy, the thickness of left ventricular walls were significantly reduced, and pericardial effusion disappeared. This case report confirms the importance of examining hypothyroidism in patients with symptoms of heart failure of unknown cause, and of patients with echocardiographic evidence of asymmetric septal hypertrophy.