[Diabetic cardiomyopathy]

Abstract

Diabetic cardiomyopathy is a myocardial disease caused by diabetes mellitus unrelated to vascular and valvular pathology or systemic arterial hypertension. Clinical and experimental studies have shown that diabetes mellitus causes myocardial hypertrophy, necrosis, and apoptosis, and increases interstitial tissue. The pathophysiology of diabetic cardiomyopathy is incompletely understood. It appears that metabolic perturbations such as hyperlipidemia, hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycemia, and changes in cardiac metabolism are involved in cellular consequences leading to increased oxidative stress, interstitial fibrosis, myocyte death, and altered intracellular ions transient and calcium homeostasis. Clinically, an early detection of asymptomatic diastolic dysfunction is possible. When patients develop signals and symptoms of heart failure, isolated diastolic dysfunction is usually detected. Systolic dysfunction is a late finding. Treatment of heart failure due to diabetic cardiomyopathy is not different from myocardiopathies of other etiologies and must follow the guidelines according to ventricular function, whether diastolic or diastolic and systolic impairment.