Recent advances in treatments and management strategies have helped patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) live longer and experience few adverse events, according to a longitudinal cohort study.

The five- and 10-year survival rates among the patients were 98 percent and 94 percent, respectively, which researchers said were similar to the expected mortality rates for the U.S. population.

The disease-related mortality rate was 0.5 percent per year.

Lead researcher Barry J. Maron, MD, of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation in Minneapolis, and colleagues published their findings in the May 12 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

They noted that developments in the past 15 years have helped these patients, including the introduction of a new risk stratification algorithm, the use of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators and advances in heart failure therapies and transplantation.

They examined databases from HCM centers at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation and Tufts Medical Center in Massachusetts and evaluated 1,001 patients who were 30 to 59 years of age between 1992 and 2011.

The mean age was 40.4 at diagnosis, 45.7 at study entry and 53.2 at the last evaluation. In addition, 70 percent of the patients were males.

At a mean follow-up period of 7.2 years, 92 percent of patients were alive. Of the 82 patients who died, 40 died of HCM and 17 died of advanced heart failure in the absence of left ventricular outflow obstruction.

“These data redefine the mortality risk and alter the historical perception of HCM as a relentless and progressive disease with limited effective treatment options,” Maron et al wrote. “In the process, we provide a measure of reassurance to patients presenting in midlife, offering many a reasonable aspiration for acceptable quality of life and extended longevity.”