0000000001030817
AUTHOR
Martin Halle
Prophylactic Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Placement in a Sporadic Desmin Related Myopathy and Cardiomyopathy
Desminopathy is a neuromuscular disorder associated with the accumulation of the protein desmin. This article reports a case of a man with a mutation in the desmin gene suffering from cardiomyopathy and skeletal myopathy. This patient underwent implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) implantation for prognostic considerations and subsequently developed a sustained ventricular tachycardia (SVT). While nonsustained VTs (NSVT) have previously been reported, this is the first time that a SVT could be seen in a patient with this disease.
A series of West European patients with severe cardiac and skeletal myopathy associated with a de novo R406W mutation in desmin.
Desminopathy is a familial or sporadic cardiac and skeletal muscular dystrophy associated with mutations in desmin. We have previously characterized a de novo desmin R406W mutation in a patient of European origin with early onset muscle weakness in the lower extremities and atrioventricular conduction block requiring a permanent pacemaker. The disease relentlessly progressed resulting in severe incapacity within 5 years after onset. We have now identified three other patients with early onset rapidly progressive cardiac and skeletal myopathy caused by this same desmin R406W mutation. The mutation was present in each studied patient, but not in their parents or other unaffected family member…