Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young people (such as the unexpected near fatal cardiac arrest suffered by the-then 23 year old footballer Fabrice Muamba), but the microscopic heart muscle abnormalities behind these tragic events can only be picked up in a post-mortem.
Now, in a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, a team of RDM researchers have borrowed a brain imaging technique to spot the tell-tale disarray in heart muscle fibres that could set off a potentially fatal heart rhythm in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
This is the first time that these tell-tale signs can be spotted in living patients.
Read more (Radcliffe Department of Medicine website)