Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: elegant use of contrast-enhanced echocardiography in the diagnostic work-up.

ABSTRACT

A 69-year-old woman was evaluated for chest pain complaints. The ECG demonstrated sinus rhythm with deep negative T waves from V2 to V6, in l, aVL and the inferior leads.Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) showed suboptimal image quality and was nondiagnostic. A repeat TTE study after administration of an echo contrast agent showed normal contractile function with apical hypertrophy. This report contains two messages. First, contrast-enhanced echocardiography is an elegant bedside tool to assess left ventricular apical segments. Secondly, in patients with ECG repolarisation abnormalities without an obvious ischaemic cause, routine echocardiography without contrast may not exclude apical HCM. Definitive exclusion of this important diagnosis requires further imaging such as CMR or contrast echocardiography.