Asymmetric left ventricular hypertrophy associated with morbid obesity mimicking familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Asymmetric septal hypertrophy with systolic anterior motion of the mitral valve is frequently a phenotypic, but not pathognomonic, expression of genetic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) with or without obstruction. It can, however, be associated nonspecifically with other forms of increased left ventricular (LV) afterload. We herein report the case of a young man with obesity cardiomyopathy and heart failure who presented with asymmetric septal hypertrophy and marked LV hypertrophy, and endomyocardial biopsy ruled out genetic HCM.