Gianfranco Sinagra • Luisa Mestroni •
Fulvio Camerini
Editors
A Clinical Approach
2013
While the contribution that diseases of the heart and blood vessels make to human morbidity and mortality has been acknowledged for decades, the health burden associated with inherited cardiovascular disorders has been recognized compar – atively recently. This change has been driven partly by advances in genomic medicine that have provided major insights into the pathogenesis of inherited cardiovascular disorders, and also by greater awareness of genetic mechanisms amongst cardiovascular specialists. Cardiomyopathies, or diseases of heart muscle unexplained by abnormal loading conditions or coronary artery disease, constitute the largest group of Mendelian cardiovascular disorders.