**Author details**

*Visions of Cardiomyocyte - Fundamental Concepts of Heart Life and Disease*

established in clinical routine.

**Acronyms and abbreviations**

AF atrial fibrillation

CK creatine kinase

DES desmin

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

ACEI angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors

ARVC arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy

ISFC International Society and Federation of Cardiology

AIDS acquired immune deficiency syndrome

CMR cardiac magnetic resonance imaging

ESC European Society of Cardiology HCM hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

HIV human immundeficiency virus ICD implantable cardioverter defibrillator IDC idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy

LINC links the nucleus to the cytoplasm

LVEF left ventricular ejection fraction

NCCM non-compaction cardiomyopathy

NOAC non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant

AHA American Heart Association ARB angiotensin receptor blockers

CAD coronary artery disease CARP cardiac ankyrin repeat protein

DCM dilated cardiomyopathy

ECG electrocardiogram EMB endomyocardial biopsy

HF heart failure

LAMA4 laminin alpha-4

MI myocardial infarction MLP muscle LIM protein MYH myosin proteins

NIV non-invasive ventilation

RNA ribonucleid acid RyR2 ryanodine receptor 2

NYHA New York Heart Association PPCM peripartum cardiomyopathy RCM restrictive cardiomyopathy

LMNA lamin A/C

**Conflict of interest**

cytoskeleton. Therefore, the diagnostic workup of DCM should involve the clinical tools as well as imaging and gen-technologies. Specific treatment is only available for syndrome-associated DCM. The majority of the DCM patients are treated for HF symptoms, prevention of thromboembolic events, and malign arrhythmias. The prognosis of DCM patients is variable and depends on multiple risk factors. Some, for example, LVEF and NYHA functional class are known for years as risk factors of SCD, others need further research before they can be

**54**

Deborah P. Schild, Sascha I. Ricciardi, Jens G. Hellige, Rolf Vogel and Nisha Arenja\* Department of Cardiology, Solothurner Spitäler AG, Kantonsspital Olten and Bürgerspital Solothurn, Switzerland

\*Address all correspondence to: nisha.arenja@spital.so.ch

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
