The Personalized Heart: Moving Beyond the 15mm Rule in HCM Diagnosis

Dr. John Fritzlen sits down with Dr. Hunain Shiwani to discuss a paradigm shift in diagnosing hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). For 50 years, the medical community has relied on a static 15mm wall thickness threshold that fails to account for individual body size, age, and biological sex; a bias that often leaves female patients underdiagnosed. Dr. Shiwani details his team’s groundbreaking research using machine learning and cardiac MRI data from the UK Biobank to establish personalized diagnostic thresholds. Discover how these demographic-based indexes can improve clinical accuracy, reduce diagnostic bias, and empower clinicians through tools like the HCM Calculator to provide more equitable care for patients on the margins of traditional criteria.

References:
HCM Calculator: https://hcmcalculator.com/