Case 3/2015 – 53-Year-Old Female with Cardiogenic Shock 12 Years after Surgical Correction of Endomyocardial Fibrosis

Clinical aspects

At the age of 29 years, the patient developed palpitations, which, after 5 years, associated with dyspnea on exertion, which progressed slowly until the age of 39 years. In young patients, the major causes of heart failure (HF) are idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, myocarditis, Chagas disease, alcoholic cardiomyopathy, and, more rarely, ischemic heart disease. In addition, rarer causes of HF in patients of tropical and subtropical regions, such as EMF, are worthy of note.

When the patient first sought the hospital, she was diagnosed with EMF, which is an uncommon restrictive cardiomyopathy, accounting for 1.6% of the deaths due to cardiac disease in Brazil. It is more common in the eastern and central regions of Africa. Several cases have been reported in South America and India, and sporadic ones have been reported worldwide. In some places, EMF has an endemic distribution.

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